Artist(s): Dirt
Song: Iniquities Turn Rust
Word Count: 310
Recorded: Abbot Sounds
Album: Plague (Rescue rec. 1999)

Dirts favorite Line(s): ‘I bring the Shadow to the mind of a carnal man/ like spears are brought to the antelope by the African’-The ‘Shadow’ in this line is referring to ‘Shadow of the Locust’. So with that in mind I was stating my goal to share my vision of a united people serving God.


First off, there’s the ‘Suitcase Packed’ intro that appears before this song on the album. While we were in L.A. recording most of this album, I got to meet a group of bikers that had devoted their lives to serving God. They had started an inner city ministry called ‘One Way Posse’. Back in the 80’s they were doin alotta street evangelism to people in the grittiest areas of Hollywood. On one of those occasions they took out a small mixing board and a PA system and recorded a live album of singing and preaching. They had pressed the recording on to vinyl and, after hearing that I was a bit of a DJ, had given me a copy of that wax. The ‘Suitcase Packed’ song was on this record. I dug the sound and thought it would be the perfect intro to the album. It was funny because I was still searchin for an intro. I didn’t want to just fly right into my tracks. I like to build it up a bit.
The second sample you hear, right before the song actually starts, is a vocal sample taken from the movie ‘Heat’ with Al Pacino and Robert Deniro. It’s the part where Al Pacino’s wife in the movie is talking to him about his dramatic lifestyle. I chose this sample to reference the idea of the song. In the song I am a hunter, and devils and weak emcee’s are my prey.
The chorus of the song ‘Look to the sky, heed the warning’ was taken from a bible verse. While I was in the studio recording ‘Breathe Babylon’ with P.O.D, we ended up using this chorus in the middle of that song also. It was all of our idea that the ‘Babylon’ song would be the official ‘Dirt intro’ to the listeners. And therefore this song would turn out to be like a ‘Breathe Babylon pt.2’. In fact I remember that I was gonna call it ‘Babylon Breathes’ at one time.
As a mini chorus, I had DJ Fingaz scratch the line ‘Even men of steel rust’ from a Jeru the Damaja song called ‘hate when the devil’s happy’ (the Sun Rises in the East). I liked this scratch for a couple reasons. To me it states the obvious, that no matter how dope you think you are, you have weaknesses. And once those weaknesses are exposed, no matter how small they may be, they will become like raw steel when exposed to water and the elements. In my opinion only God is above that ‘rust factor’.
This song, like most of the Plague album was initially recorded in Hollywood but remixed a couple of times in San Diego and L.A. before the album was released. I chose to place it first on the album because I wanted to set the standard high in the beginning and loosen up from there. This was my first album. My first opportunity to display what I have to listeners. One of my biggest problems with the Christian hiphop music industry was that there seemed to be an attitude that believing emcee’s were not allowed to go to war. On the contrary, life is full of inner and outer warfare. And in my mind the most prepared people for a ‘military conflict’ are those that are willing to stand up for their beliefs even unto martyrdom. There are certain things that I believe in that no one can shake me from. And in this song I wanted to show that I don’t have to submit to these things that would rather see me fail in my attempts to devote myself to my beliefs. Placing the song first on the album was me saying ‘we can have fun later, but here’s who I am if you wanna get down and dirty!