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To Be Rich Should Be a Crime

by Cola Boyy

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about

🔘 Cola Boyy: "I will be donating 50% of my Bandcamp proceeds to the @Ox_Arrest_FundsVenmo. Community members and activists who are organizing in Oxnard are facing legal fees after protesting against local slumlords and the police. They're brave as fuck and deserve all the support they can get. The other 50% of the proceeds will go towards the Help Austin #GeorgeFloyd Protesters Facing State RepressionGoFundMe. Protesters in Austin Texas are facing continuous repression. Leaders are being targeted and protesters are being brutalized by the police regularly. Following the murder of Garrett Foster by a fascist named Daniel Perry back in July, the police and their racist supporters have continued attempts at violently repressing the people fighting for Black Lives. These fighters need our support."

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It's not the first time a song from another era finds greater resonance today, especially amid such troubled times. Jeb Loy Nichols' 2010 "To Be Rich Should Be a Crime" makes no exception as it was excavated by Cola Boyy early 2020, who found in that reggae tune and its anti-capitalist message the essence of his steadfast work as a militant fighting white supremacy and growing social inequalities in the USA.
With the help of producer John Carroll Kirby and adding real strings thanks to his longtime partner and producer nit, Cola Boyy put a new spin and new words into it, so that "To Be Rich Should Be a Crime" becomes the true classic protest song it always deserved to be.

Cola Boyy adds: "Jeb's words are so honest and real, I think he really speaks in the language of the people, which is something to admire. We're truly living in a historical time. So many people are mobilizing, rattling the streets, fighting for Black Lives. I'm confident in the ability of the people to change this world with their fists and their minds. The big bosses are trembling. It's the perfect moment for songs like these."

lyrics

🔘 Lyrics:

The big boss gets fatter and we stay poor
Now we say no more!

To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime

Where did you get your money sir?
How did you get your money girl?
Who did you exploit tell me?
Who did you steal it from?

To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime

For one man to be rich
Another many must be poor
The big boss don't care for me
He left me dead in aisle 4

To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime

Who built your houses sir?
Who built your schools sir?
Who cleaned your table now?
Who sewed that suit your wearing?

To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime
To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime

Throw out the old society
Build a brand new
Build it up!

Here on bus stop 6
A woman sits in front of me
It's Penny Girl she's so hardworking
Yet she don't got a dollar to show

To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime
To be rich should be a crime
To-be-rich-should-be-a-crime

Get all the rich people out here
Get em all out of there
Long live the working class
Long live the workers of the world
Men and women UNITE!

credits

released February 5, 2021
Written and composed by Jeb Loy Nichols
Vocals by Cola Boyy
Produced by John Carroll Kirby
Strings by Corentin nit Kerdraon
Drums by Simon Le Saint
Mastered by Benjamin Joubert

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about

Cola Boyy Oxnard, California

Matthew Urango, aka Cola Boyy, is coming from Oxnard, California. He was discovered on the occasion of a concert in Los Angeles by Record Makers, the record label of Kavinsky and Sebastien Tellier.

Cola Boyy is an unusual and self-taught musician & singer. His very typical but natural voice is the consequence of a disability from birth.
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