Dope idea. I've always been smitten with the lyrics to "Beat Street" - yes, that "Beat Street", the breakin' film from back in the day.
The last verse (copied below), is so seriously ahead of its time that sometimes I think Grandmaster Flash must have been sent from the future... Perhaps by Treehugger, circa 2098...

A newspaper burns in the sand, and the headlines say
‘Man destroys Man!’
Extra! Extra! Read all the bad news on the war for peace
that everybody would lose,
The rise and fall, the last great empire, the sound of the
whole world caught on fire,
The ruthless struggle, the desperate gamble
The game that left the whole world in shambles
The cheats, the lies, the alibis
And the foolish attempt to conquer the skies
Lost in space, and what is it worth, huh?
The president just forgot about Earth
Spending multi billions, and maybe even trillions
The cost of weapons ran into zillions
There’s gold in the street, and diamonds under feet
And the children in Africa don’t even eat
Flies on their faces, they’re living like mice
And the houses even make the ghetto look nice, Huh!
The water tastes funny, it’s forever too sunny
And they work all month and don’t make no money
A fight for power, a nuclear shower
And people shout out in the darkest hour
Of sights unseen and voices unheard
And finally the bomb gets the last word
Christians killed Muslims, and Germans killed Jews
And everybody’s bodies are used and abused, Huh!
Minds are poisoned and souls are polluted
Superiority complex is deep rooted
Leeches and lice’s, and people got prices
Egomaniacs control the self-righteous
Nothing is sacred and nothing is pure
So the revelation of death is our cure
Hitler and Caesar, Custer and Reagan
Napoleon, Castro, Mussolini and Begin
Ghengis Khan and the Shah of Iran
Mixed with the blood of the weaker man
The peoples in terror, the leaders made the error
And now they can’t even look in the mirror
‘Cause we gotta suffer while things get rougher
And that’s the reason why we got to get tougher
To learn from the past and work for the future
And don’t be a slave to no computer
‘Cause the Children of Man inherits the land
And the future of the world is in your hands
So just throw your hands in the air!
And wave ‘em like you just don’t care!
And if you believe that you’re the future
Scream it out and say ‘Oh yeah!’
(‘Oh yeah!’)

Oh, by the way - also worthy of TH mention is Sarah McLachlen's video for "World on Fire".

Re: Sarah, try the link to the second song!

future complications
in the strings between the cans
but no prints can come from fingers
if machines become our hands
and then our feet become the wheels
and then the wheels become the cars
and then the rigs begin to drill
until the drilling goes too far

Jack Johnson > The Horizon Has Been Defeated

Gotta give a nod to my favorite band: 1905. See for example:

For Sale

A life that breaks more than it builds and leaves you bored and unfulfilled a life that takes more than it gives a life that i don't want to live a life that thinks it knows it all as it drives itself into a wall. You can't sustain/maintain this life...

Can't Change Everything

To envision a world without chains but recognize that we, as individuals, can only chip away at the links. One at a time, day by day. To have the ability to wage quiet wars in our everyday lives and recognize the subtle victories when they happen....An opinion changed by something you said. A lifestyle adjusted by what you suggested. A brighter path taken with directions you gave. A world revealed by what you did. One brick today is one less for tomorrow.

A couple other tracks worth checking out:

New World Water by Mos Def

Simulated Snow by Sixtoo

What about Mos Def's New World Water:
There's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)
Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water
On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)
Try it with your friends

New World Water make the tide rise high
Come inland and make your house go "Bye" (My house!)
Fools done upset the Old Man River
Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga
Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin
So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin
Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since
it's the New World Water; and every drop counts
You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna
But it don't rain for four weeks some summers
And it's about to get real wild in the half
You be buying Evian just to take a f**kin bath
Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank
Competin with the next man for higher playin rank
See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,
F**k a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank
Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods
The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods
And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher
They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"
New York is drinkin it (New World Water)
Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)
Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)
Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)
Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Push the water table lopside
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause oil tankers spill they load as they roam cross the sea
Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)
When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let em know)
You gotta put it in the iron you steamin with (That's right)
It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out)
The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)
And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let em know)
Consumption promotes health and easiness (That's right)
Go too long without it on this earth and you leavin it (Shout it out)
Americans wastin it on some leisure shit (Say word?)
And other nations be desperately seekin it (Let em know)
Bacteria washing up on they beaches (Say word?)
Don't drink the water, son they can't wash they feet with it (Let em know)
Young babies in perpetual neediness (Say word?)
Epidemics hopppin up off the petri dish (Let em know)
Control centers try to play it all secretive (Say word?)
To avoid public panic and freakiness (Let em know)
There are places where TB is common as TV
Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy
The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line
Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five
Now the world is drinkin it
Your moms, wife, and baby girl is drinkin it
Up north and down south is drinkin it
You should just have to go to your sink for it
The cash registers is goin "cha-chink!" for it
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Got the fish lookin cockeyed
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause it's all about gettin that cash (Money)

Said it's all about gettin that cash (Money) (x9)
Johny cash (Money)
Roseland cash (Money)
Give me cash (Money)
Cold cash (Money)

Hey Brix,
Great to see you shout out Sixtoo, I went to school with him in Halifax back in the day.
If you feel what he does, you should check out Buck 65 and Josh Martinez, two other East coast mc's (Buck 65 produces and cuts too) with great flow and amazing lyrics.

Hey you can't forget the ultimate Treehugger classic!

Joni Mitchell's
Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
Put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that d.d.t. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Anything by John Butler Trio

This is one of my very favorite songs. This isn't the entire song. The whole song makes me want to live that "greener more just life"

Conviction Of The Heart

...One with the earth, with the sky
One with everything in life
I believe we'll survive
If we only try

How long must we wait to change
This world bound in chains that we live in
To know what it is to forgive,
And be forgiven?

It's been too many years of taking now.
Isn't it time to stop somehow?


Air that's too angry to breathe, water our children can't drink

You've heard it hundreds of times
You say your aware, believe and you care. But
Do you care enough?

Where's your conviction of the heart?

One with the earth, with the sky

One with everything in life


I believe it will start with conviction of the heart...


One earth one sky only one world. Only one chance for one life.

When will we live With Conviction of the heart?


One child one dream, only one life. Give her one chance for one life.

When will we live with Coviction of the heart?...


...Only one earth, only one sky, only one world. We've only got one chance to live one life.

I believe it's only gonna start when we begin with some conviction of the heart.




--Kenny Loggins and Guy Thomas