New World Water

Mos Def "New World Water"

Cali's been in a water crisis for a minute now. For the past two years or so, I've been looking up to the sky everyday, trying to squeeze some drops of water out of the clouds with the sheer will of my gaze. Somehow, it feels that everyone else has just caught onto the worry too. The news is challenging us to use less than 20 gallons of water per day. And the price of refilling a gallon of water just went up from 25 cents to 30 cents, the first price increase of water in like 40 years or something.

I don't think Mos Def intended for his words to become literal. Back in 1999 when he first dropped this cut on Black On Both Sides, I thought Mos was merely decrying corporate greed, depicting a world where corporate greed leads companies to charge us for even the most essential of essentials. Now, it's looking like the world he spit wasn't a figment of his imagination, it was a prophecy. Water is slowly becoming the new petroleum.

That half-empty glass is looking emptier everyday.