Strange Fruition

Album: Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Fiasco kicks off his fourth album, Food & Liquor II by rapping on this song, "Now I can't pledge allegiance to your flag. 'Cause I can't find no reconciliation with your past." Speaking on MTV's RapFix Live, Fiasco explained that his refusal to pledge allegiance to the American flag is partly due to his Muslim faith as well as the influence of his politically progressive parents. "My moms and my pops told us when we were little kids, 'You don't say the pledge of allegiance'," he said. "More from a religious kind of thing, halfway. You pledge your allegiance to God and that's it. Being Muslim and things like that, you don't pledge allegiance to no flag.

    My father was a Black Panther, my mama was super intellectual, left-wing, the whole kind of situation. So it's that layer on it too," Fiasco continued. "Not yet, you don't pledge allegiance yet, we're still working on this place."
  • This is a modern day take on Billie Holiday's 1939 racially charged recording "Strange Fruit," which was voted in 1999 by Time magazine as the Song of the Century.
  • The song features producer and songwriter Casey Benjamin, who is one half of the funk new wave duo HEAVy with vocalist Nicky Guiland. Benjamin has also toured with Patrick Stump as his keyboard/saxophonist.

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