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15 years ago in 1998 Wu Tang Clan associate Killah Priest released a song called Information on his album Heavy Mental. As a teenager I used to listen to it quite a bit. I found Killah Priest who connects everything from Aliens to Kabbala a funny conspiracy weirdo. But I liked the chill and dark atmosphere of the recording. I still do.

These days I am reading a lot about Big Data, information infrastructure projects and augmented reality applications. Plus I am reading the Wu Tang Manual. So I remembered Killah Priest's song Information. It features a description of his 1998 vision of future surveillance programs that struck me due to its parallels to the recently unveilled PRISM and Tempora projects.

I am sure Killah Priest must be hanging out in Brooklyn these days like I-Knew-It-All. If this young homie could see Tempora/PRISM coming in 1998 I guess we all must have known even at that time what is going on. Maybe this is one reason why the public stays so calm after what Edward Snowden has brought to the public. Moreover I take it as a lesson to put more trust in my current intuition.

Note: The song features one inacceptable anti-semitic byline which I despise but leave in because I don't like censorship.

LYRICS:

Information, no doubt, ya know, don't stop, don't stop, don't stop
Information, literature, thiefs on the run, where ya gonna hide
When the truth comes down on ya, you have to decide
Where ya gonna run to, where you gonna hide, information
When the truth comes down upon ya, you have to to decide
You have to to decide

Information, we have to come with the laser scanners and shoot ya
In supermarkets and department stores, direct mail houses
Were to record every single items we purchase, data about ya
Daily habits, and movements will flow into the b system
From spy satellites, constantly searching overhead
Watching us like we're squirting, a suburban 666 database investigator
Entire race heading for a cyber-space
Riots breaks inside an em-pire states, every move you make
Is recorded on tape, some of us are white
Prisoned behind gates, getting minature videos in a brief-case
Recording our every activities, indoors, outdoors, day & night
Obscenely invaded our policy, our prophecies
Star gazing, because Allah's far amazing, than any greater god or for pagan
Raised in synagogs of Satan, awakeing with the starvanation
Left beats, scared and shaking, god with education, my birth was foretold
From deep within my wardrobe, imbrase the cross-road, we once wore gold
But now we electric probes with silicon brains, sinthetic
All faces are strange, pathetic, check the eyes
A man can't even recognise his family
I blame it on humanity, for this insanity, spy satellites
The last data for life, theres no day or night, CIA
Take samples of my DNA, new borns, grow horns, placed in uniforms
Shipped off to the military, with they killed and buried...
Active tv sets will be watching us, just as we watched them
They will also report back to the beast at computer headquarters
Our telephone conversations will be automatically wire taped
And transcripted by the national security agency
Honesty, modesty, poverty, famine
Sons of Amman, deal with reprogramming, irus scanning
Breaking out of Satan's bondage, with long garments
Like we bionic, no longer paying homage, remember after 9-6
We wear biochips, now it's 9 fuckin', beware of armageddon
Bloodsheddin', and beheading, head on head collision
In the valley of decisions, we locked the beast in prison

Here ya gonna run to, where you gonna hide
When the truth comes down upon you, you will have to to decide
Where ya gonna run to, where you gonna hide
When the truth comes down upon you, you will have to to decide
When that time comes, you will have to decide, information, information
You will have to decide, information, where you gonna run to
Where you gonna hide, when the truth comes down upon you
You will have to decide, information, information
Information....