In The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo a choice: the blue pill, which allows him to return to his normal life, and the red pill, which leads him to the truth.
It’s a point of no-return that guarantees nothing.”All I’m offering you is the truth, nothing more,” Morpheus says.
Maybe this is dramatic, but I think that’s the point of this new project by Bambu.
Bambu DePistola is a Filipino-American rapper and activist most famous for his intensely political lyrical style, as well as being the face of the indie hip-hop label Beatrock Music. His label-mate, Ruby Ibarra, also just won this year’s Tiny Desk Contest.
Last year, the Oakland-based artist released They’re Burning the Boats, a sonic exploration of the United States of America’s state-sanctioned violence.
“They’re Burning the Boats, feels like a fever dream under a flickering carnival light – dark, chaotic, and uncomfortably alive,” the album’s Bandcamp description reads.
At this point you may be asking, rightfully so, how does a piece of art force me to do anything?
It forces you to reckon with yourself.
They’re Burning The Boats is not necessarily unique in its political views. But it directly confronts the listener on various issues by asking audiences to question their sense of normalcy and responsibility, and then examine their beliefs.
Where is your line in the sand, and are you crossing that already?
The album’s title which itself references the brutal history of Hernan Cortes, who famously burned his expedition’s boats upon landing in Mexico to force his men’s total commitment to conquering the Aztec Empire. For the colonizers, who brought about the suffering and death of millions of indigenous people, it was success or death.
The production on the opening track, “It’s Happening, Again” rings as a caution, with a whispery voice warning you that, “they’re burning the boats” once more.
What follows is a beat that sounds like you snuck some boom bap drums into the Red Room on Twin Peaks — a lone horn slithering its way through the song.
In the tracks to follow, Bambu’s words cut through the simple production to deliver a message: this has been happening and it’s always been happening. Now what are you going to do?
On “Their Problem, Not Mine” the rapper specifically calls out other Filipinos that “raise punk-ass kids, scared-ass kids, make-sure-you-tell-the-teacher-if-they-bully-you-ass kids” and “send ‘em to white schools so they grow up knowing inferiority complexes.”
He’s talking about the Filipino community, but you could have the same conversation in a lot of other groups, and it would still work.
On “Righteous, By Design” he raps:
“Why Ms. Rachel go harder than all y’all? Y’all chose money over kids getting bombed on.”
He even ends that track with a clip from Ms. Rachel’s show, where she makes the simple case that no child should be starved or bombed and invites a Gazan child on her show to make that plea for herself.
The point is clear. A children’s show is making a clear, principled case for humanity, while “mature” and “grown-up” shows from major news networks and their pundits hand-wave away dead children for the adults.
“Complicit, Repeat” is a song which asks those of us who aren’t currently forced into direct action by the violence of the state to reflect on our own histories and realities.
On the final track “It’s Happening, Now” he ends with gentle piano and the same whispering from the beginning: “They’re burning the boats.”
Now, you can wake up from this vivid fever dream Bambu depicts.After hearing songs like “Burning Manufactured, Alive”— which presents vignettes of people in Gaza right before a state-sanctioned missile ends their life in a hellfire combustion— you can still make the choice to “believe whatever you want to believe.”
Or, to paraphrase Morpheus, you can stay in wonderland and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
But the choice posed by They’re Burning the Boats though will play out slower than choosing a pill and taking it.
It will come in the form of all the choices we make, as we confront the realities of the world we live in.
Even if you choose truth, you can still end up like Cypher, who can’t bear the burden.
And sometimes the truth hurts. To quote Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
That’s what this album feels like at times — a punch in the face.
For some listeners, maybe the biggest truth to reckon with is that none of this is new. On the track “Blood In The Maybach, Patay Sa Baha” Bambu argues that this has been happening for a while:
“…like I’m still 14… back when politicians sold themselves for capital gain. Fast forward to my forties, yo check it out it’s the same.”
I write this not because I have made the choice. I am not here to grandstand.
I don’t think I will bury my head in the sand, but actions speak louder than words. And only actions will determine which choice you really made.
As the facade crumbles around us, we see the cracks, the glitches, and are confronted with a choice that we have to make.
I don’t know which choice I’ll actually end up making.
There are no boats left, and the only escape is delusion or death.
And I stare at the choice Morpheus sets before me.
