Live From The Abyss Lyrics
Overnight, Minneapolis on fire
Protestors leaving an auto parts store in flames
Others seen looting a local Target
Tonight was a different night of protesting
[Verse]
I walk around with confidence, plottin' on accomplishments
Plannin' somethin' radical in the cut, so anonymous
I don't fuck with my president, tried to block all Mexicans
If he hear this message, please don't send SWAT to my residence
The police keep on killin' us, hands up then they start to shoot
Bad enough I'm scared of them and afraid of my niggas too
I'm screamin', "Black is beautiful," views are probably anti-race
I can see the fear in your eyes when you look in my face
We all been on this paper chase, the only way to keep us free
All I see is red and green, money soak when my foes'll bleed
I'm pourin' up my Hennessy, fightin' with my shadow self
End up back in therapy, next to God, that's what seems to help
Got a tat' of Malcolm X, other one is young Bruce Lee
Always practice martial arts, misinformed then you need to read
The truth they always hidin' in books because they always overlooked
That's all I need to say in this verse, and now here comes the hook
[Chorus]
Reportin' live from the depths of the abyss, I'm at risk
When I be talkin' to my people like this, raise my fist
I tell Trump and the office to suck a dick, bitch, I'm pissed
Reportin' live from the depths of the abyss, the abyss
Reportin' live from the depths of the abyss, I'm at risk
When I be talkin' to my people like this, raise my fist
I tell Trump and the office to suck a dick, bitch, I'm pissed
Reportin' live from the depths of the abyss, the abyss, the abyss
When is it really gon' change? When is it really gon' stop?
When is it really gon' change? When is it really gon' stop?
When is it really gon' change? When is it really gon' stop?
When is it really gon' change? When is it really gon' stop?
When is it really gon' change? When is it really gon' stop?
About
Released one month ahead of the 2020 United States presidential elections, “Live From the Abyss” is a protest song expressing Denzel Curry’s frustration with the political state of America under Donald Trump’s presidency—which Curry had previously condemned on 2018’s “SIRENS | Z1RENZ”.
The short track addresses social discrimination and police brutality, two historical social issues that notably led to the historical George Floyd Protests under Donald Trump’s mandate. The song’s release was also accompanied by a short statement from Denzel addressing the historic voter suppression in Miami.
“Live From the Abyss” comes four months after Curry joined Terrace Martin to denounce systemic injustice on “Pig Feet,” and resonates with his August 2020 statement to Variety:
We have a platform, and I think every artist should use their platform to speak out.
Denzel Curry first teased the protest song on September 4, 2020, with an Instagram post revealing the last thirty seconds. The full track was released one month later as a Bandcamp exclusive for a week before being released on all streaming services. All proceeds generated by the song’s streams on Bandcamp will be donated to the protest group Dream Defenders.
The song’s production is handled by Curry’s frequent collaborators and friends FnZ. It’s currently unknown if “Live From the Abyss” is scheduled to be released on one of Curry’s upcoming projects.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Voter suppression has been a ploy of amerikka for a long time. They were more bold in the past but they found new quiet ways to disenfranchise us. As they attempt to revert back to these tactics just know panic and terror didn’t work on us in 1939 and it won’t work on us today. Indian land. Black slavery. Chinese mining. Latino labor. My brothers and sisters have overcome substantial amounts of injustice to achieve equal opportunity. Equality doesn’t come with a limit and no amount of your PRIDE can instill fear in my heart. This has been a Black Man Broadcast Live From The Abyss.
Denzel Curry elaborated on what the 2020 presidential elections meant to him for Pitchfork on October 13, 2020:
This is actually my first time voting, I just recently registered a few months back. I’ve evolved a lot since the last election, when I didn’t think voting made a difference. I was wrong. My initial reaction to voting was always “fuck the system,” but when you think about it, how do you begin? Misinformation and the restriction of knowledge is just a small part of the oppression we deal with within our community. We gotta change that bullshit, open our eyes, break the cycle, and find candidates that are going to empower the community, reallocate funds, help reform the criminal justice system, and invest in the youth. We have a real-life dumb fuck governor in Florida currently trying to criminalize our right to protest, so our idiot mayor in Miami-Dade can fill that new prison he’s trying to build. I still got a lot to learn about politics, but these are real issues that affect you and me. My ultimate goal in this election, though, is to abolish Trump by exercising our right to fire him for being an irresponsible white person.
