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Bronx Hip-Hop Duo Rebel Diaz, Live from Occupy Wall Street March

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The hip-hop brother duo Rebel Diaz attended the Occupy Wall Street march in Lower Manhattan yesterday and stopped to tell Democracy Now! why they came down from the South Bronx to join thousands of others demanding change. As they walked along Broadway toward Zuccotti Park, the heart of the protest encampment, they performed a song written about the Occupy movement spreading across the United States. It’s called “We the 99 Percent.” [includes rush transcript]

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Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This break brought to you by Rebel Diaz in the streets of New York.

RODSTARZ: My name is RodStarz.

G1: My name is G1, and we’re Rebel Diaz from the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective in the South Bronx. We’re here supporting, in solidarity, Occupy Wall Street. We believe that there’s communities here in New York City that have been fighting this fight for a long time, and it’s time for us to be involved and participate in the leadership of activities of this process, so we’re here. We’re here, and we in solidarity.

RODSTARZ: For us, we’re saying, you know, these banks committed the largest robbery in the history of this country, and as a people, we didn’t get a bailout. Main Street didn’t get a bailout. The Bronx, we didn’t get a bailout. So we here representing communities that are underprivileged, that are under-resourced, and we representing the young people, you know what I’m saying? We’re looking—we don’t want a future of student debt, of—you know what I mean? Of taxes that we got to pay to bail these people out. They’re the rich. What about the bailout for the people? So we’re here representing for the people.

G1: Hip-hop, represent for the people.

RODSTARZ: Always.

G1: Peace.

RODSTARZ: All right.

AMY GOODMAN: You want to do something? Perform something?

REBEL DIAZ: [rapping] Yo, we the 99, the 99, the 99 percent
We here, we arrived, and we came to represent
Yo, we the 99, the 99, the 99 percent
We here, we arrived, and we came to represent
For the people, for the teachers, for the people
If we knew that just one percent of these dudes
Owned two-thirds of the U.S. of A
American way
They lock our youth away, right?
Commit the same crimes
And tell the rest, let ’em eat cake
In Francais, they burn cars
In London, they set it off
Well, over here it’s time we march

I spit for those that have been silenced by the state
They try to silence us like if the party’s going late
But I’m a keep a-movin’ for I do this for my fate
Cause you know how I’m a make it
Cause you know we feel great
Organizing with the people
Organizing with the streets
Because if you understand, with Wall Street we got beef
They takin’ all the funds
They takin’ all the jobs
And people understand that the people are getting hot
I got unemployment lines
It’s by design
Like a dollar signs
Economic times
We hard
And everybody knows we’re representin’ the Bronx

Yo, we the 99, the 99, the 99 percent
We here, we arrived, and we came to represent
Yo, we the 99, the 99, the 99 percent
We here, we arrived, and we came to represent.

RODSTARZ: That’s what it is.

G1: Yeah, peace out. Rebel Diaz.

AMY GOODMAN: Rebel Diaz, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, in the streets of New York as tens of thousands march from Foley Square in downtown Manhattan to the Occupy Wall Street encampment.

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