There’s some strange music popping up in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Probably the worst of it is Chuck Redden’s racist and ignorant tune called “The Battle of New Orleans Katrina.” The chorus goes:

“And they blamed George Bush,
and they blamed the head of Fema,
they told everybody that would listen to em’ shout.
They blamed the mayor,
and they blamed Governor Blanco,
cause nobody came to get their sorry asses out.”

It’s pathetic enough that the lyrics don’t rhyme or have any flow, but the whole thing is a waste of your ears if you have the patience to listen to it. The rest of the song focuses on many of the myths about what New Orleanians did in the aftermath of Katrina, including the supposedly widespread looting, raping, murder, and assaults on first responders, non of which were true. (The so called “looting” was mostly a rational response by citizens of New Orleans to attain food and supplies during the several days that they were without any assistance whatsoever.)

On a lighter note there is an underground release supposedly penned by 10th Ward Buck entitled, “What is your FEMA number?” The track samples the embarrassingly (yes people, we should be embarrassed) popular “Shake that Laffy Taffy!” beat, and rolls out lyrics like:

“I think it start with 9,
I think it start with 3,
Look I ain’t getting’ off the phone till you give me, me.
I done walked through the flood with these shoes on my feet,
Man I need a fresh pair, give me my 23…”

By far the best post-Katrina musical release to date is Dynira’s soon to be legendary “Spirit of New Orleans.” Dynira’s LP (2 tracks) is set to hit stores in August, but you can sample it here - http://www.dynira.com/. Set to some serious beats he explains:

“Bye bye, then they played us like we was nothin’,
Big families a bunch scattered us like we was puppets, trust me,
That ain’t the last you niggas heard of us,
I’m with that phony state of Texas,
Yeah enough is enough, but,
I ain’t gonna sit and watch my people just get slaughtered,
We was born in New Orleans, we gonna die for New Orleans.
We gon’ bounce back, we gon’ bounce back,
We gon’ bounce back, put New Orleans back up on the map!”

I ran across some high school kids playing their horns along the railroad tracks in the Bywater today. They were blasting some powerful tune that carried for miles. It began modestly enough, increased its pitch, then the trumpeter kicked in with this screeching noise followed by the rest. They were loud and furious enough to even drown out the noise of a train passing by only yards away. It’s good to see some music back up in this city. Music is, after all, what put New Orleans on the map.