Edulution [Track 16] | Conscious Rap Sociology: Analyzing Edulution, Wealth Inequality, and Human Behavior

Looking Back from a New Era of Critique - May 2026

Fifteen years ago, I looked at American culture through a raw, unfiltered lens and captured it in my music. When I originally wrote down these thoughts back in 2011, the world was in the middle of a massive systemic shift. We were witnessing the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement and a renewed friction between the public and corporate power. Looking back at that body of work now, it feels both like a time capsule and a continuous mirror. The core issues I criticized haven't vanished; they have simply evolved into more sophisticated structures.

How the Cultural and Economic Landscape Has Shifted

In 2011, speaking out about the top one percent rigging the system felt incredibly urgent and visually stark. Today, corporate impunity and wealth consolidation aren't just hidden secrets—they are out in the open. The integration of big money into our legislative branches has normalized a system where hard work rarely pays off unless you already have the capital. As a sociologist, I watch these behavioral patterns repeat on a macro scale every single day. We have transitioned from fighting the machine to learning how to navigate around it to survive.

The music industry underwent a massive transformation too, moving away from artistic sovereignty toward algorithmic control. Back then, I was focused on carrying the legacy of Grand Master Flash and sending a culturally relevant message. That mission hasn't changed for me, but the strategy must adapt if you want to stay truly independent. If you want to dive deeper into how I approach the business side of independent music and album distribution, check out the LyceumRecordz.com blog. It is where I lay out the blueprint for maintaining your creative control without selling out.

The Philosophy of Getting Real with Ourselves

Part of my evolution since writing these lyrics involves looking deeper into the social psychology of human behavior. In tracks like "Bonobo," I used evolutionary comparisons to challenge our species' extreme self-obsession and arrogance. We like to think of ourselves as uniquely divine, yet our societal structures often reflect raw, primitive tribalism and collective malfeasance. Over the years, my writing—including books like "Farming Humans"—has continuously explored how systems exploit these baseline human traits. We must confront the uncomfortable truth about our behavioral conditioning if we ever want to break free from systemic exploitation.

True conscious rap isn't just about pointing out the flaws in the government or the economy; it is about deep internal self-reflection. I still stand firmly by the Apollonian mindset of using reason, clarity, and truth to wake people up. We don't need more distractions; we need a genuine understanding of how macroeconomics and power dynamics shape our daily lives. That is why I choose to speak to you directly, bypassing the traditional gatekeepers who profit off our compliance. If you want to join a community dedicated to exploring these systemic critiques and deep philosophical breakdowns, grab a membership at fiense.com/memberships.

The 2011 Archive: Inside the Lyrics of Edulution and Bonobo

The “Edulution” track is the “capstone” track, which seriously explores and criticizes American culture. It encapsulates and associates our humanity with the various topics by making us more humble in self-reflection. The words are so potent that it feels “toxic, noxious.”

“We need Apollo, not Dionysus. Cause a ruckus, wake the public, get pissed and riot; I’m non-violent unless you wanna fight, bitch.” These lyrics represent the Apollonian vs. Dionysian dichotomy. Apollo is non-violent, but Dionysus (more like E$) is ready to provoke a fight.

The first verse is a tribute to the legendary hip-hop group “Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five,” who are known for their song “The Message.” This song is seen as the quintessential representation of what hip-hop should be... a genre of music that explores and illuminates life and culture, and sends a positive message. Sending a message that is conscious and culturally relevant is seemingly unheard of in hip-hop these days. “Grand Master Flash, just a thing of the past, but I came to make sure that the legacy lasts” is me saying that I will continue the true legacy of hip-hop.

This is why I start the second verse with “don’t console me (un)less you wanna know the truth,” because that is what you are going to get from Apollo, whether you like it or not. So, if you don’t like the truth, don’t listen! (Good thing there’s Dionysus and E$ for the parties though!)

Bonobo

“You’re a bipedal tetra-pod, obsessed with demigods, impressed by any god that gives you answers all’s.” This lyrical sentence represents the following philosophical sentiment: You are a multi-cellular organism that has four legs (tetrapod) and propels itself forward with two legs (bipedal). And, you believe in gods that give you the function to supply all your own answers (and that function is faith). It’s the classic dialogue of: How did the world begin? The Big Bang. Well, who started that? God! ...It’s just an answer with no validity without faith. Faith’s (lack of) validity is a whole other discussion.

“You’re obsessed with yourself; this species needs help” is another way of saying that we have reckless disregard for life other than humans. The truth is that every ecological system is in decline, and the biosphere as a whole is horrendous thanks to human malfeasance. The human form is anthropomorphized everywhere in our society, especially in commercials. (Actually, look at how many things acquire human characteristics.) Part of this is because we are wired to see faces and human figures due to evolutionary purposes, but I think a lot of it comes from an over-worshiping of humans as being divinely created. To be frank, we, as a species, are not “that” great (especially considering what we have done to the world), and we need to get over ourselves because the “self-reflected portrait” is only “wishfully perfect.”

“You still eat, sleep, shit, fuck, like a bonobo” is inciting the similarities between yourself and a bonobo. Bonobos are a type of monkey that is so similar to humans, especially in their sexual escapades and sounds, that most zoos refuse to house them because it makes the visitors “uncomfortable.” The reality is, if you take bonobos out of that sentence and replace them with any animal, the sentence would still hold true.

I then continue to explain the similarities between humans and monkeys (which is due to a common ancestor). The vivid imagery that is then created paints a picture of a more primitive version of human warfare. The point of this is to knock humans down a peg and force us to realize we are no better than monkeys in the jungle if all we do is war, rape, and kill.

“98 percent genetically aligned, so I represent my cousins on the vine; arboreal insignia, orangutan, simian.” You share 98 percent of the same genetic material with a chimpanzee. You have more in common with a chimpanzee, genetically, than a chimpanzee does with an ape!. Arboreal locomotion means the movement of animals (swinging) through trees. And, Insignia means a symbol.

“1984 is a vision coming forth.” In the book 1984 by Georgy Orwell, the Ministry of Plenty is in control of the planned economy. “Don’t you find it interesting that truth is an obscenity? The untold misery of the corporate impunity” is due largely to a failure of the news media to illuminate inequality in America.

The main idea of Marx is that there is an inherent class struggle between those who sell their labor (the proletariat) and those who sell the capital that labor provides (the bourgeoisie). This is what I am referring to when I say “Right, Economy doesn’t have class...” There is a super-rich class in America that has consolidated vast amounts of wealth and successfully infiltrated every branch of the government with monied influences.

“One percent top, got this shit rigged.” I don’t hide my association with the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and this lyric explains why I went to New York in November and made a documentary illuminating the movement. I was clairvoyant here in naming the opposition, or problem in America, poignantly as the top one percent. “They bought the courts, congress and the pigs” is my way of saying that every branch of government--judicial, legislative, and executive (respectively)--is bought and paid for, in one way or another, by the wealthy plutocrats.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any controlling private power. - Franklin D. Roosevelt