"Do you remember the time of laughter, children playing, life was so sweet, before our city forgot us and let the druglord take our street, pacify me politician, pacify me with your lies, blind to the people suffering, deaf to the children's cries"
Time's Up is the second album from living Colour, the follow up to Vivid which spawned their eternal hit "Cult of Personality." Time's Up continues their hard rock style but adds elements of metal and funk on some tracks. There's also a surprising amount of rap features ranging from Doug E. Fresh to Queen Latifah and even Little Richard. Yes, that Little Richard. It was also the last album the bassist Muzz Skillington was featured as a band member.
The album opens with "Time's Up," which takes a few seconds before kicking off with some metal so you know what kind of album you're getting into. No matter how much the track kicks you in the face with high paced drums and screaming guitars and something that sounds like a flute it doesn't demonstrate the full range of the album. It's followed with the short interlude "History Lesson," that discusses how African history isn't discussed in school.
"Pride," follows and talks about the double standards black people suffer from and ignorant questions we face. If we're proud we're lazy and the only time we're good is if we're working. Paul Mooney once stated "Everybody wants to be a nigga, but nobody wants to be a nigga." The band also agrees with that as they state "You like our hair, you love our music, our culture's large, so you abuse it." They then go on to ask why people abuse black culture but still won't treat us like equals. It also takes aim at American school's history education with lines like, "History's a lie that they teach you in school, a fraudulent view called the golden rule, a peaceful land that was born civilized, was robbed of its riches, its freedom, its pride."
"New Jack Theme," takes at look at the lure of drug dealing and why it's so hard to stop once you've started. It's an interesting take when at the time so many were singing about addiction. "Someone Like You," is a track that points to a lot of people the black community doesn't trust and tells them exactly why. Politicians only care about the black community when they need votes. Then they lie and make promises they never come through on. Even in the 90s the police were shooting unarmed black people. This particular song they shoot a medical student. Then they point out the prostitute has a purer heart than either.
"Elvis Is Dead," is a funny track. They basically make fun of Elvis for being dead and laugh at people who worship him as the King of Rock. Then they sample part of Chuck D's verse on "Fight The Power" where he stated "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me you see, straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain, mother fuck him and John Wayne." It's obvious Living Colour agreed with the statement. The track also features some really nice saxophone backing from Maceo Parker. If you're wonder who performs the rap, it's Little Richard.
"Information Overload," doesn't have any lyrics that specifically apply to black culture, I just wanted to mention it had some really awesome solos. "Under Cover of Darkness," sounds like a really political track. It's not, it's a song about sex. Not just any sex either, Glover sings about how important it is to be safe if you're going to have sex with random partners calling it a safe seduction because sex and sexuality aren't what they used to be. Then Queen Latifah comes in tells women don't even have sex with a man you're not in love with because they're using you. It seems like such an out of place song on the album but you have to consider AIDS was rapidly spreading in the 90s. It makes sense for them to tell people to have safe sex and limit the number of partners. It's still good sense today.
"Tag Team Partners," is just a fun interlude that features the band beatboxing alongside Doug E. Fresh. It's followed by a mellow almost reggae styled track with a slow beat, steel drums and some chants backing Glover. It's a song about how no matter how hard you try to break black people we can always take solace in knowing who we are. Then the album ends with "This is Your Life," it tells people that no matter how much life sucks, just realize in another life you're the hero, genius, winner etc. Maybe I'm looking to deep but I feel like it's saying no matter what you think of yourself someone else probably thinks more of you. There's also the idea that you can have a giant ego but someone else sees you flaws. You might be feeling suicidal, but to someone else you're their hero so just treasure the life you have. It could also be a song about multiverse-theory, who knows.
"Time's Up," is a good album that takes aim at a lot of social issues from racism, to safe sex and abstinence to suicide prevention. I love the fact that they point out rock music is black culture and that's why they do it, whether people like it or not. There's a lot of talk about the black community that is introspective, but that's not the main point. The main point is be black and proud, don't let anyone tell you that you're not black because you do rock music or whatever else.
Feel free to follow along with our Black Music Month Series
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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