Mark DeYoung – “11/24 (RIP Michael Brown)”

Written on the night it was announced that officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the murder of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. I finally got a chance to make something of it…

Lauryn Hill – “Mystery of Iniquity (All Falls Down)” with lyrics

audio from her MTV Unplugged album

In “Mystery of Iniquity,” Hill employs the prophetic biblical trope of the courtroom trial to construct her contextual understanding of iniquity and the inequality of the American legal system, once again informed by numerous scripture references (particularly Revelation).

Hill exposes the truth behind this “mystery of iniquity” as a fundamental narrative of injustice, highlighting both the individual and systemic, as well as both the concrete and the spiritual, causes of human sinfulness and the untold suffering it causes. After exposing the psychological and societal conditioning we receive which compels us toward “self-interest, the broad way to death,” she urges us to “repent and let [our] mind[s] be re-taught.”