Brenda Iijima cites Amiri Baraka's collaoration with The Roots, “Something in the Way of Things.” I'll let it speak for itself but I think this song is one of the greatest works of art ever made. It's about ecological awareness really, since that awareness is deep intimacy with strange familiar beings. A speculative sublime that's often very creepy...and entwined with race and class and capital...
Paranoia is the default mode of ecological awareness...I've been using this song in my ecological literature and philosophy classes for some years now so it was thrilling to see it in Iijima's work. There is some kind of magic in this work. Spine chilling.
Something in the way of things
Something that will quit and won't start
Something you know but can't stand
Can't know get along with
Like death
Riding on top of the car peering through the windshield for his cue
Something entirely fictitious and true
That creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways
Like they were yourself passing yourself not smiling
The dead guy you saw me talking to is your boss
I tried to put a spell on him but his spirit is illiterate
Something in the way of things is a hyperobject.
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