Scott Cook - Get' Em, Letitia James

Get 'Em, Letitia James!

[Contains "****" and "****." Clean version also available on APD)]


Friends, the TV news gives me the blues
With the stories they run
'Bout the crooked, fakin' assholes takin' up
All the oxygen
They got ads to sell us, so they don't tell us
How to change the status quo
Or inform the masses 'bout true badasses
And folk heroes
Some good people insist that you can't resist
The machine and its will
So many tried and failed, one even got nailed
To a cross on a hill
And some other folks say, that they'll let you play
But they'll never let you win
And you must be deranged if you dream of changing
The system from within
No denying, it's a long run
And there's a million and one ways to ruin it
But if you say it can't be done
Just stay out the way of the ones doin' it!
Who paid their dues, studied the rules
To beat 'em at their own games
Like the queen bee, New York A.G.
The fearless Letitia James
Ain't it sweet to see the powers that be
Go down in flames?
They're so unnerved when they get served
Get 'em, Letitia James


Born and bred in Brooklyn, she grew up looking
At the world from that view
And her family was tested when her brother was arrested
For something that he didn't do
When they went to the courtroom to support him
Tish was a teenager
And she saw everyone in there except the defendants,
None of 'em looked like her
And her vow that day
To fight for an education
Took her such a long way
To her vocation in litigation
From public defender to attorney general
Kicking **** and taking names
From food stamps to the people's champ
The mighty Letitia James
Ain't it sweet to see the powers that be
Go down in flames?
They're so unnerved when they get served
Get 'em, Letitia James


Freshly educated at Howard University
Tish went to work for the Legal Aid Society
Defended folks who didn't have the dollars
Set up a coalition for young black scholars
And it was righteous work, but she was just getting started
Won a seat on city council for the Working Families Party
Found irregularities in corporate contracts
Fixed payroll and took six hundred million back
Fought corruption in the NYPD
Sued the cops for roughing people up at Occupy Wall Street
Fought against developers to keep folks in their homes
Knowing poor people can't fight 'em alone
Next she got elected Public Advocate
Elevated the position by the respect she had for it
Heard complaints to try and make things fair
Sued the city over foster care
Then in 2019 she was elected A.G.
And everyone who stood behind her could see
That same as ever, she'd be the people's defender
Fighting the sharks and the predatory lenders
Even when she was outgunned she fought anyway
Sniffed out fraud and filed suit against the NRA
Never afraid of the powerful so and sos
Like Mayor Bloomberg or Governor Cuomo
Working under people she was way smarter than
Dealing out justice that was non-partisan
I mean Cuomo was a Democrat
But he was also a creep and Tish wouldn't have that
She opened an inquiry into the harassment allegations
And another into undercounted deaths of nursing home patients
She kept it all in her sights
And just kept on picking the right fights
To break up big tech, to keep the net neutral
Filed antitrust against Facebook and Google
Sued corporations for fraud and fixing prices
Fined J&J $200 million for the opioid crisis
Fought for tenants and children
Fought for the disrespected and forgotten
She said I won't be found up in an ivory tower
I'll be here on the ground speaking truth to power
Feeling people's pain, doin' the job relatably
And never be removed from those