Soldiers' Songs

The messages range from patriotic anthems to Bush-bashing tirades. In "Sleeping Giant," metal band 10 Fold — fronted by Army Spc. Eric Conley, a Humvee gunner who patrolled the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — lashes out at the terrorists who invoked American wrath: "Your God can't save you. . . . You'll be gone soon." Backed by the sounds of gunfire, Dirty Boi Vets — Marine Sgts. Tendaji Akil-Milele and Sugarray Henry — question their mission on "Combat Zone": "CO telling us we won't be that long/I still think we killing them for no reason."

On "Reality Check," rapper Malakai, a.k.a. Army Sgt. Eddie Ward, who has had two rotations training Iraqi military officers, accuses President Bush of using America's poor to fight a pointless war. "It lets the world see that soldiers are people and we're not just robots," says Ward. "All we need is an opportunity to be heard."