Quilombo

Probablemente hayan visto ya el vídeo musical del nuevo single de Grace Jones, Corporate cannibal (gracias, Jan). La actuación de la veterana artista, con ayuda de la distorsión visual producida por ordenador, la transforma en un ser de otro mundo, una especie de vampiro etéreo, fluido, en constante cambio, que amenaza con devorarnos. La imagen minimalista, en blanco y negro, cobra todo su sentido con la música y sobre todo la letra, que comienza con  un diabólico pleased to meet you.

Las referencias a un capitalismo corporativo, digital o cognitivo, que se alimenta no ya de la fuerza de trabajo sino de la propia vida (you are my life support/your life is my sport) y cuyos flujos financieros mutan como la imagen metamorfoseada de Grace Jones,  no han pasado inadvertidas para críticos y especialistas en cultura pop. Jones continúa usando su cuerpo e imagen para jugar con las ambigüedades y los estereotipos de género y raza (negro/caníbal). Imágenes y rimas sencillas pero potentes que aportan una acertada metáfora del sistema.

Corporate cannibal

Pleased to meet you.
Pleased to have you on my plate.
Your meat is sweet to me.
Your destiny, your fate.
You’re my life support.
Your life is my sport.

I’m a man eating machine.
I’m a man, a man eating machine.

You won’t hear me laughing
as I terminate your day.
You can’t trace my footsteps
as I walk the other way.

I can’t get enough prey, pray for me
I can’t get enough prey, pray for me
Corporate cannibal, digital criminal

I’m a corporate cannibal, (digital criminal)
Corporate cannibal, eat you like an animal.

Employer of the year,
grandmaster of fear.
My blood flows satanical,
mechanical,
masonical
and chemical.
Habitual ritual,

I’m a man eating machine.
I’m a man, a man eating machine.

I deal in the market
Every man, a woman, a child is a target
A closet full of faceless
nameless
pay more for less
emptiness
I’ll make you scrounge in my executive lounge
You’ll pay less tax but I will gain more back
My rules you fools
We can play a money game
greed game
power game
stay insane
Lost in this cell, in this hell
slave to the rhythm
of the corporate prison.

I’m a man eating machine.
I can’t get enough prey, pray for me.
I can’t get enough prey,
Corporate cannibal, digital criminal.
I’m a corporate cannibal, Corporate cannibal (A digital criminal)
Corporate cannibal, eat you like an animal.
I’ll consume my consumers
with no sense of humor.
I’ll give you a uniform chloroform,
sanitized,
homogenized
vaporized… you

I’m a man eating machine.
I’m the spark that’ll
make the world explode.
I’ll make the world explode
Corporate cannibal,
digital criminal.
Corporate cannibal,
digital criminal
eat you like an animal.