Special thanks to Christina for this!

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Deniz Lopez is a radical poet and activist here in Houston, TX, this video originally appeared on Southern Shift. Special thanks to her for forwarding this!

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New track from MIA. MIA is a radical hip-hop artist who has unapologetically defended the struggle for Tamil liberation in the face of brutal suppression from the US government and the Sri Lankan state. Also see Sunshowers.

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The following originally appeared on Tanzle Town. Thanks to Koba for pointing it out.

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My problems with this video are threefold. Firstly, this video is pure old fashioned misogyny masquerading as empowerment. The second is that the position of female soldiers has been completely distorted – US State Department figures report that one in three women in the US military will be raped or sexually assaulted by her male counterparts. And the third is that riding around on a colonialist expedition with America’s army does not make you ‘hard’ and that war is not something to be glamorised.

It saddens me to see the route that Rihanna has taken with this video, particularly since she has herself recently been the victim of domestic violence by her former partner. It appears that this video is in part a reaction to that period of her life or at least a reaction to the media circus that sprung up around her since. The fact remains that we live in a world where one in six women are raped and even greater numbers suffer abuse – stopping this should be a priority in the world today but it isn’t. It is no wonder therefore that there is still a market for the false empowerment in this video, that the music industry can tell women that sex is the real way to be respected by men. Unless things change more young women will remain both lost, exploited and unempowered.

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"This is why I don't refer to women as queens,

cause you got fingers like me to squeeze an M16.

You a soldier like me, so until our people are free...

It's the new patriarchy in a conscious song,

I heard the queen was dead."

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Download "The Queen is Dead"

The Queen Is Dead, is the first song leaked from revolutionary Filipino hip hop artist Bambu's new album, ...paper cuts… set for a February 23rd release date.