new music – the paradise paradox

Every couple of years we look at our bank accounts and realise that our money buys less than it did. We work so hard for our money, and yet it seems difficult to get ahead. Why? It’s not by accident. The monetary system is structured that way. Central banks continue to print money, and bankers get rich, but as the currency supply increases, the value of our dollars decrease.

What’s the solution? Many people thought that Bitcoin could free us from this mess. The promise of decentralised currency – not controlled by any central authority, but instead governed by algorithms, using cryptography – could mean the end to central banks. Yet, it seems like Bitcoin hasn’t yet lived up to that dream. We can’t spend Bitcoin at the corner store, we can’t tip in it, and if we tell our bank manager that we have some bitcoins as collateral for a loan, he’ll probably laugh. And, as transaction fees go higher and higher, it seems less and less likely that Bitcoin will ever live up to our highest expectations. It seems that Bitcoin might not be anything more than Internet nerd money.

Dash is based on Bitcoin, but has certain other features which might just make it live up to those expectations. It allows the stakeholders to form a consensus to make decisions about where the project is going, and it has a focus on user experience. If the team manage to create virtual money which is stable, accepted, and so easy that your grandma could use it – could Dash be the currency of our dreams?

Here’s a rap song which explores those concepts.

To download the track, right click here and press “Save as“.

Lyrics

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

I grew up where half dollars have 12 sides
Queen’s head on the front, roo & emu behind
But instead of gaining value the Aussie lost it
So I wondered what could have possibly caused it
In the minds of politicians corruption’s forming
Abusing the system of inflation we’re born in
To make an honest livin’ you work, it takes time
But central banks just print their money – that ain’t right
Now I’m living in Mexico, collecting the pesos
stash a little silver case the bank goes broke
Once upon a time a peso was “buen dinero”
1990 it got away & they dropped “tres ceros”
Your man Trump – I don’t believe in him
Puppet Peña Nieto – you can see the strings
Politicians criminals thieves & kings
See your money float away like leaves in the wind

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all
Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

I guess I wondered ’bout a way out the struggle
Starvin children dotcom housin’ bubble
The system’s rigged, the dollar has to topple
That’s when I heard the name Satoshi Nakamoto
Stranger emerged to the world to give it code
& change it forever through digital gold
He’s still vanished, with the code it could manage
To give us an exit from the whims of banksters
And as it rose, nouveau riche control the cheese
A new breed of millionaires promoting peace
But as the years passed we found we had a problem
This nerdy tech wasn’t ready for mass adoption
Some still suspect the government payroll
Agents provocateurs COINTELPRO paid trolls
Thought Bitcoin’d save us from one thing we wanted it
Instead fell victim to the same thing – politics

Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all
Dash rules everything around me
D.R.E.A.M. get the money, digital cash y’all

You’re never gonna get, outta debt
When every cent you’ve met is borrowed from the Fed
They’ve got you in an awkward position
But the dream’s still alive, I can see it in my vision
They arrested Von Nothaus, stealing his ingots
they got charlie shrem for laundering digits
They snapped up Ross saying he sells dope
They arrested so many, but you can’t arrest hope
The goal is to create a system so resilient
It evolves whenever it’s fisted out of commission
The dream is to cast off these banker’s shackles
That have been for centuries on our hands & ankles
The dream is this, whatever cards you dealt
Whoever you are, can find a path to wealth
They’ll get lines blurred, nothing’s what it seems
No matter what occurs, don’t give up the dream

Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – digital cash y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – digital cash y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – forget the dollar bills y’all
Dash Rules Everything Around Me – D.R.E.A.M.
Get the money – forget the dollar bills y’all

The Episode:

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The Cash:

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The Story:

I started writing a song for Juan Galt’s documentary series about freedom-loving expatriates in Acapulco. I wrote a bunch of verses, a few beats and a few hooks, but nothing really came out right. I asked Juan and he gave me a few concepts, laying out his vision for the song – the idea of people escaping an oppressive regrime, and the parallels to Galt’s Gulch, the refugee for productive people from Ayn Rand’s famous novel “Atlas Shrugged”.

These ideas simmered away in my mind, and in the next few days, while I was out walking, a simple hook bubbled to the surface: “I’m sailing in on a sloop on a Pacific wind/Waiting to start my life again/I don’t know much, y pues, yo no se mucho/Pero, yo se que si voy yendo a Acapulco…” I recorded it on a voice note on my phone. I felt elation, and instantly I knew that I was onto a good thing. After that, it came down to putting in the hard work to write verses which lead to the inevitable and potent conclusion.

When I posted the song in the Anarchapulco group on Facebook, Jeff Berwick heard the song and almost immediately asked me to perform at the event. I said yes, though I didn’t really know what I was going to do. The last time I had done anything resembling a performance was one year before, at Anarchapulco 2015, when Rob Hustle called for MCs to come from the crowd, and I jumped up and spat eight bars with intensity and conviction.

So I spent the next couple of weeks going through some old tracks, digging through audios to find some instrumentals from years ago, to see if I could put together a short set. This is that set.

Many thanks to Dan Dicks of Press For Truth and Doug Scribner of Watchmybit for providing the footage.