Listen to Lauryn Hill's new single 'Consumerism'

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It was guest rapper Kendrick Lamar who garnered all the attention on Big Sean’s track “Control.” Lamar proclaimed himself “king of New York,” knocking down hip-hop titans, like Jay-Z, Eminem and Andre 3000, not to mention his counterparts Drake, J. Cole and A$AP Rocky. But according to Lamar, his hip-hop brethren just didn’t get his verse and spun his lines out of context. “I’m saying I’m the most hungry. I respect the legends in the game .... Because of what they laid down, I’m going to try to go harder, breathe it and live it - that’s the point of the whole verse,” Lamar responded. (Theo Wargo / Getty Images)

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Looks like this is a two-fer. In J.Cole’s track “Jodeci Freestyle” featuring rapper and actor Drake, J.Cole raps he’s artistic, while describing his competition as autistic. The line outraged the autism community and then some. It didn’t take long before the pair issued their mea culpas. J.Cole went first, and said, “To anyone suffering from Autism, either mildly or severely, I am sorry. I’m bound to make mistakes in my life, but in my heart I just want to spread love.” Drake followed with, “I share responsibility and offer my sincerest apologies for the pain this has caused. Individuals with autism have brilliant and creative minds, and their gifts should not be disparaged or discounted.” (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

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In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, actor/singer/activist Harry Belafonte said that when it comes to the image of minorities in Hollywood, people like Jay-Z and Beyonce have turned their backs on social responsibility. Naturally, Jay-Z had a problem with Belafonte’s statement. So on his latest album in the track “Nickels and Dimes,” Jay-Z slams Belafonte for not giving him the respect he deserves and says the actor isn’t aware of things Jay-Z does for the people in his community. The rapper also calls Belafonte’s famous song “Day O,” a “fail.” (Jim Ross / Associated Press)

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Where to begin with Kanye West’s “Yeezus” album? First, West distastefully raps about sexual acts with Asian women in the track “I’m In It.” The indignation, obvious. He goes on to rap about Parkinson’s disease in another track titled “On Sight,” picking on the tremor that is a symptom of the illness. No apologies here. Just Kanye being Kanye. (Matt Sayles / Invision)

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Lil Wayne is no stranger to controversy. (Rapping about “sizzurp” and stomping on the American flag, anyone?) This time, the debate ensued over his crude sexual reference to civil rights figure Emmett Till. As Times reporter Gerrick Kennedy wrote, in the track “Karate Chop,” the tatted entertainer compared “his sexual prowess to the 1955 assault of Till -- a 14-year-old African American who was tortured and killed after reportedly whistling at a white woman during a family visit in Mississippi.” The verse cost Lil Wayne his endorsement deal with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew. (David Goldman / Associated Press)

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A song that never popularly hit the airwaves gained traction when one specific verse spread to the masses. On the track titled “U.O.E.N.O,” Rick Ross delivers a line describing date rape as entertainment. Because of that verse, Reebok dropped the rapper-mogul as a spokesman. He later apologized on a New Orleans radio station, saying, “As far as my camp, hip-hop don’t condone that, the streets don’t condone that, nobody condones that.” (Isaac Brekken / Getty Images )

By Gerrick D. Kennedy

Oct. 4, 2013 12:19 PM PT

For the past three months Lauryn Hill has been behind bars for tax evasion. Hill chose to mark her release on Friday with a new single, “Consumerism.”

The coming out track is a blistering jam that has Hill speed-rapping through a heady list of societal woes -- and her targets are wide-ranging.

Ageism, sexism, egotism, racism, fascism, McCarthyism and commercialism all get a heavy lashing. Hill’s sharp delivery is lightning quick, like her pre-incarceration single “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix),” requires multiple listens just to pick up what she has to say -- and she has a lot to say. It all happens atop chaotic instrumentation and chanting (not to mention haunting) voices.

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Despite it’s jarring arrangement, “Consumerism” feels more focused and less confounding than recent offerings such as “Neurotic Society” and “Black Rage,” which she debuted during her 2012 joint tour with Nas.

The new single was penned before she reported to the Federal Correctional Institute in Connecticut, and was mixed while she was serving time. It appears to be part of a collection of work she’s calling “Letters to Exile,” according to a statement.

“’Consumerism’ is part of some material I was trying to finish before I had to come in. We did our best to eek out a mix via verbal and emailed direction, thanks to the crew of surrogate ears on the other side. ‘Letters From Exile’ is material written from a certain space, in a certain place. I felt the need to discuss the underlying socio-political, cultural paradigm as I saw it,” she wrote in a message that accompanied the single on her Tumblr page.

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“I haven’t been able to watch the news too much recently, so I’m not hip on everything going on. But inspiration of this sort is a kind of news in and of itself, and often times contains an urgency that precedes what happens. I couldn’t imagine it not being relevant. Messages like these I imagine find their audience, or their audience finds them, like water seeking it’s level.”

In May, the Grammy-winning singer was convicted of failing to pay taxes on more than $2 million from 2005 to 2009.

Before sentencing she likened the music business to the slavery of her ancestors, and said she stopped paying taxes when she walked away from the industry in order to protect herself and her six children. Earlier this year Hill announced she had reached a deal with Sony to launch a new label on which to release new music.

Listen to “Consumerism” below:

Listen to Lauryn Hill’s new single ‘Consumerism’

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