Humans (The Nonbelievers Anthem)

Check out this new song by atheist hip-hop artist Copastatic — there’s a powerful message contained in the NSFW lyrics:

(Hook)
Are we human or are we dancers?
My signs are vital
My hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human?
or are we dancers?

(Verse 1)
How could I be such a fool,
Not to see you as a real man but a tool,
An instrument of manipulation and creation of power,
to everything that you touch turns sour,
from the sex, women, poor, blind, politics, warheads and the cowards
So tell me Yahweh, are we human or are we dancers
Are our lives choreographed or do we own our own conscious
And if ya father is the truth, why the fuck should I believe in him?
That jealous nigga genocide over 2 million,
Made us stone women,
Endorsed slavery,
Even had a loving father offer up his baby,
Think that thats crazy, but ain’t shit though,
Look at all the judgment passed out from ya people,
they think I’m the LIVED BACKWARDS from a hearse,
but I’m only trying to EVIL the best i can in REVERSE,
So fuck the pious and shout out to all the humanist,
We actually read the scriptures so now we atheist.

(Hook)
Are we human or are we dancers?
My signs are vital
My hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human?
or are we dancer?

(Verse 2)

They say that everything in this world has ya imprint,
And not to question anything cuz you omnipotent,
the quintessential being but I call out your treason,
but the religious say everything happens for a reason,
So praise God for spreading Aids and not condoms,
Praise God for no cures just famine,
Don’t save the people, but guide the motherfuckin’ gunman,
Hang all the blacks, and protect all the Klansmen,
Praise the lord taking away my twins,
and thank the man for never seeing ya kin again,
And you wanna threaten us call us the villain,
But you control the tens of millions malnourished children,
So fuck you, fuck ya, a trillion times fuck you,
I’m really mad that they call you a perfectionist,
Instead we are left with hate speech Westboro Baptist,
the rapist knowing popes and the people who praise him,
(Hook)
Are we human or are we dancers?
My signs are vital
My hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human?
or are we dancer?

Also, I love that the word “pasta” is in his name.

Roxane

Thanks for posting the lyrics. Old farts like me wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise, but I’m reposting.
John Fieldman

I still like the Killers better.
Meguel Copeland

Thank you soooo much for posting my song. I truly appreciate it!!
Acitta

Too bad the woman didn’t sing the whole song. She at least has a voice worth listening to.
NotYou007

I hate the phrase “are we human or are we dancers” I hated it when the orginal song came out and I hate that they use it as a hook in this song.

I love Greydon Square and if you want to listen to something much better check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ez1ZeMfZ0
Daniel

Well I for one love it! I think you older people just aren’t used to this type of genre… Sound like a bunch of religious bigots, not wanting to try something new 😛
Dave B

The words are easy to mishear as “are we human or are we dancers?” but they are actually “are we human or are we denser?” I know this because I got to hear a radio DJ explain it to a caller who thought the song was very meaningful. The caller responded “wow, that’s even deeper!” Apparently, any random collection of words sounds deep when put together in a song.
joshing

Thanks for posting. Regardless of how you feel about hip hop or believe, as others who’ve already responded, that this isn’t “a voice worth listening to,” some of us do enjoy it. It’s always good to hear a rapper speak up about non-belief, the rap game is far too saturated in religious sentiment. Good shit Copastatic.
Newbs

Sorry to burst your bubble, Dave B, but it most definitely is “dancer” — just the singular though. It was inspired by a quote from Hunter S. Thompson, and the original song also has a bunch of quotes from Nietzsche.

There’s also a nice, brief write-up on the wikipedia page for this song if you’re interested.

As to this reinterpretation, it’s a little angry for my tastes, but I like the message, and really if there’s anything worth getting fired up about, it’s this.
WMDKitty

Not a fan of rap/hip-hop, but I liked this.
Adam

For hip-hop, it had a pretty awful flow to the lyrics. I’ve definitely heard worse rap songs, but this is nothing spectacular. And the lyrics themselves aren’t fantastic either.

I’ll stick with Bad Religion and XTC. 🙂
Claudia

@Dave B, the song itself shows that it is indeed “dancers” because otherwise the lines
“So tell me Yahweh, are we human or are we dancers
Are our lives choreographed or do we own our own conscious”

doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I like the song. I’m no hip-hop fan, but that mostly has to do with most hip-hop having little content beyond sex, drugs and violence with a heavy dose of superfluous expletives. Actual content rich hip-hop is fine. I think it’s great that more nontheist artists are showing their art. The community is mostly science oriented (myself included) and it’s important that we expand to include nonbelievers of all stripes, even those who can’t come up with quick and accurate definitions for evolution (which the singers might be able to do, mind you).
Maliknant

I like it, but the best atheist rapper I’ve heard is Tombstone Da Deadman. He’s got flow.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TOMBSTONE-DA-DEADMAN/6760433642
Meguel

Thank you for all of your comments. Good and Bad. This is just how i felt at the time and how I wanted to deliever it. But thank you 😀
Tom

Nice song, super glad to see more artists out there like this, even using the word humanist. Who does that!
Russell Altizer

The part I like most is that Meguel is reading the comments. The songs not bad, though. Not quite as crisp as someone like Greydon Square, but certainly a better message than what’s found in 90% of the rap that gets radio play.
Annie

I liked the song. I grew up listening to Euro pop in the early 80s and so I was drawn in by the female vocalist. When the rap started, I jolted up and listened to the message. As several have said, I think it is very positive that atheism is showing up in many genres these days. Though my musical tastes lean more towards Steve Martin picking a banjo, I will listen to this one again.
Cortex

I definitely identify with the sentiment of this song. A lot of people in atheism talk about how they can’t hate God because they don’t believe he exists, and that’s true enough. But in addition to my disbelief, I do hate the idea of God, and I would hate him if he were real. It’s nice to see this feeling represented. Love the “evil in reverse” line, too.

Still, whenever I come across an atheist song, I feel like something’s missing in the same way that something always seems to be missing from Christian music (I don’t mean for this association to offend). I think the problem is that these songs focus on the point they’re trying to make about the world at the expense of communicating something personal that the audience can empathize with.

It’s been mentioned that there’s a lot of religious talk in hip-hop, but it works because those rappers are talking about faith as just another part of their lives. Even “Jesus Walks” spends a whole verse talking about dealing with racism in the Midwest before moving its focus to Kanye’s personal reliance on his faith (and judging from his body of work, he loves Jay-Z at LEAST as much as he loves God).

This artist seems to definitely have a story to tell, and I’d love to hear how he came to be an atheist, and how it fits into his life.
AmyC

I [heart] The Killers. “Human” is one of my favorites, along with “Dust Land Fairytale” and “All These Things that I’ve Done.” I don’t see why people care so much about the grammatical construction of “Are we human, or are we dancer.” He’s obviously using the more philosophical meaning for “human” by using the universal singular form (as opposed to using the word “humans” which would seem like a more biological use of the word). Then he mirrors “dancer” after “human.” I’ve seen this convention used in poetry before. And of course the philosophical underpinnings of the song are set against an awesome dance beat which in Brandon Flowers own words also reflects the chorus’ question about human/dancer.
Daniel

I have one piece of advice for those of you who don’t like this the first time you listen to it… Turn It Up.

It’s better when its loud.
keystothekid

Jumpin’ on the bandwagon to say it’s nice to see more intelligent hip hop. It’s got that southern slang feel to it, Meguel are you from the south?
Meguel Copeland

@Keystothekid Yes I am from Oklahoma but i reside in Nor Cal nowadays and that is where i have gained my atheist roots 😀