rhetoric

sophistication in speaking; using language effectively to please or persuade

Heard in 59 songs (55M+ combined views) — most famously in "Spirits in the Material World" by The Police.

Updated July 31, 2026

Songs Featuring “rhetoric

The Police - Spirits in the Material World

Time: 1:12

But it's the rhetoric of failure

We are spirits in the material world

The Police - Spirits in the Material World

J. Cole - My Nigga Just Made Bail

Time: 2:34

If we the new slaves

I am Frederick Douglass of rhetoric ahead the the others

You motherfuckas better get free

J. Cole - My Nigga Just Made Bail

Public Enemy - Welcome to the Terrordome

Time: 1:08

Gear I wear got 'em goin' in fear

Rhetoric said

Read just a bit ago

Public Enemy - Welcome to the Terrordome

Slipknot - Eeyore

Time: 0:46

I didn't get to kill you

Rhetoric, better look both ways

I gotta get an arm through

Slipknot - Eeyore

Deltron 3030 - 3030

Time: 4:51

It's an eternal evil concerned with thievery

Medieval, prehistoric rhetoric, well we ahead of that

Lay it down with soundwaves that pound pavement

Deltron 3030 - 3030

A$AP Rocky - FYBR (First Year Being Rich)

Time: 1:16

In the gym like I'm gettin' ripped

My rhetoric, nigga let it drip

A half a billion by 36

A$AP Rocky - FYBR (First Year Being Rich)

Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance

Time: 2:03

I know that this can be more than just flashing lights and sound

Rhetoric can't raise the dead

I'm sick of always talking when there's no change

Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance

Logic - DadBod

Time: 1:32

But fuck it all, it doesn't matter

Ayo I'm on a lyrical, poetic rhetoric

Lyrical miracle, satirical shit

Logic - DadBod

Motionless in White - B.F.B.T.G.: Corpse Nation

Time: 1:48

Contagious, hysteric rages

But it's time to let the rhetoric go up in flames

Assault with your cryptic words

Motionless in White - B.F.B.T.G.: Corpse Nation

Parkway Drive - Swing

Time: 0:08

Filled with disgust

Strip back the utopian rhetoric

And you'll find a sickness at the core

Parkway Drive - Swing

Lupe Fiasco - No. 1 Headband

Time: 1:23

Bum, bum, bum, bum (I'ma be the one)

I turn letters to rhetoric

Turnin' feathers to fetishes, dispersin' treasure

Lupe Fiasco - No. 1 Headband

Dream Theater - Prophets of War

Time: 2:08

A perverse request

They continue the same rhetoric

These derelicts that profit

Dream Theater - Prophets of War

Gucci Mane - I Think I'm In Love

Time: 0:49

I'm an entertainer, baby, but my name ain't Cedric

I got cheddar and etcetera, so stop the rhetoric

But enough about me, baby, sweetie, tell me 'bout yourself (ooh)

Gucci Mane - I Think I'm In Love

Stone Sour - Come What(ever) May

Time: 1:10

The only problem is

Your fuckin' rhetoric

We're more in danger than before you took power

Stone Sour - Come What(ever) May

Bad Religion - Punk Rock Song

Time: 0:49

The party convention and the real politik

The face is always different, the rhetoric the same

But we swallow it all, and we'll see nothing change

Bad Religion - Punk Rock Song

3OH!3 - Chokechain

Time: 1:46

Tom hits, where you get to get a bit of etiquette

Before we split the scene to try to spit a bit of rhetoric

You got to say, don't go-go put it away

3OH!3 - Chokechain

At the Drive-In - Quarantined

Time: 1:36

Wet raindrop lull small rationing

Exhumed the rhetoric of

Break the weak in single file

At the Drive-In - Quarantined

Sandi Patty - Love in Any Language

Time: 2:22

Fluently spoken here

Tho' the rhetoric of government

May keep us worlds apart

Sandi Patty - Love in Any Language

Reflection Eternal - Too Late

Time: 1:03

No lie texturized, emcees who got the masses mesmerized

With empty rhetoric, they better quit

Niggas so hollow that they echo like sentiments

Reflection Eternal - Too Late

Saba - Survivor's Guilt

Time: 1:41

I plotted on everything, said "I'ma kill everything"

Survivor's guilt rhetoric, I could've been a B

But that thinkin' deadly

Saba - Survivor's Guilt

Kansas - Hopelessly Human

Time: 4:36

It's a strange situation, there's no cause for alarm

All these hot licks and rhetoric

Surely do you no harm

Kansas - Hopelessly Human

JPEGMAFIA - Papi I Missed U

Time: 1:19

Young, black male with the .44 (Haha, brr)

Ha, I'm a terrorist (Yeah), I don't spit raps, bitch I spit rhetoric

And I be in your kid's mind, gettin' leverage

JPEGMAFIA - Papi I Missed U

Billy Talent - Judged

Time: 0:00

I swear some day we'll be rid of your Klan

Your hateful rhetoric is so carefree

Why can't you see what it feels like to be

Billy Talent - Judged

The Roots - No Great Pretender

Time: 0:45

Pull up the urinal organs up in your bladder cat

Approachin you with shriller rhetoric, as if you had a sac

Now crews down for it, your gas pedal floor it

The Roots - No Great Pretender

Wale - Salary Kaep

Time: 0:40

Infrared beam on confederate flag

I ain't with the rhetoric the president be on

Forever with my niggas in the level that we on

Wale - Salary Kaep

Chris Webby - Rap Nemesis

Time: 0:02

It's that evil rap nemesis, putting together sentences

Let it be said a bit with the excellent rhetoric

It's that evil rap nemesis, putting together sentences

Chris Webby - Rap Nemesis

Tyga - Bad Bitches

Time: 1:03

I give her a couple of shots and then she turn alcoholic

Metaphorically or Rhetoric

And I'm shittin' on your forehead

Tyga - Bad Bitches

MF Doom - Guinnesses

Time: 0:31

Common sense just swerved every time I got served

Stress, frustration, empty rhetoric

Cold as winter in Connecticut, compassion lacking deficit

MF Doom - Guinnesses

Napalm Death - I Abstain

Time: 2:46

Lose your discretion.

Soon, you'll not fall from grace endorse their rhetoric you fade,

they prosper.

Napalm Death - I Abstain

R. Kelly - Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Time: 2:41

But what we need to do, is put that mouth on a betta bitch

You heart the rhetoric, Jigga hit me over the head

With a champagne bottle at the bar, can he buy me a car?

R. Kelly - Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Lou Reed - There Is No Time

Time: 2:45

The future is at head

This is no time for phony rhetoric

This is no time for political speech

Lou Reed - There Is No Time

Machine Head - Blood of the Zodiac

Time: 3:00

His dominance of ignorance

Was rhetoric that made no sense

Some believed in all the lies

Machine Head - Blood of the Zodiac

Rancid - Stand Your Ground

Time: 0:38

If you're gonna leave it,

And the rhetoric is there,

If you're gonna read it,

Rancid - Stand Your Ground

Nas - Y'all My Ni**as

Time: 0:23

We gotta, strip the word down rugged and raw

The rhetoric of Martin King just ain't around no more

Du Bois ain't here, James Baldwin neither, they all were leaders

Nas - Y'all My Ni**as

Tech N9ne - It Goes Up Freestyle

Time: 2:20

I'm selfish with the bars, in private life, I'm generous

I can't entertain y'all silly diatribes and rhetoric

The game's a motherfucker, we idolizing Oedipus

Tech N9ne - It Goes Up Freestyle

Anthrax - Refuse to Be Denied

Time: 1:28

Ain't gonna change my way of life

Twisted rhetoric, I won't subscribe

Refuse to be denied

Anthrax - Refuse to Be Denied

Pharoahe Monch - Welcome to the Terrordrome

Time: 1:12

Gear I wear got 'em goin in fear

Rhetoric said, it read just a bit ago

Not quittin, it signed the hard rhymer

Pharoahe Monch - Welcome to the Terrordrome

Hüsker Dü - Real World

Time: 0:46

That makes me more upset

People talk all this rhetoric

Forgive but not forget

Hüsker Dü - Real World

Atmosphere - Like A Fire

Time: 1:41

I hope you feel that that's a compliment

'Cause you've been hollering the phony rhetoric for a minute

We outta give you a ribbon for the commitment

Atmosphere - Like A Fire

Newsboys - Good Stuff

Time: 0:57

I could speak with tongues of Angels

Apologetics in a slick rhetoric

Either way without love my words are dead

Newsboys - Good Stuff

Magnetic Man - The Bug

Time: 1:27

Totem to pick

Monitor sexual rhetoric

Up in the swelling storm

Magnetic Man - The Bug

Chris Rea - Anyone Quite Like You

Time: 2:03

Ten thousand reasons why

The rhetoric is endless

I see the laughter in your eyes

Chris Rea - Anyone Quite Like You

Cass McCombs - Cry

Time: 0:32

Though horses could easily pull me apart

No rhetoric and no gold for bards

Cass McCombs - Cry

The Alchemist - See The Rich Man Play

Time: 2:24

Popped a mescaline in like a breath mint, benevolence

Diamond elements, million dollar rhetoric

Remy Martin spill on the carpet

The Alchemist - See The Rich Man Play

The Wonder Years - Cul-De-Sac

Time: 1:19

Outside of the gas station where we always used to shoplift

It's car-crash rhetoric

We fucked up everything we came in contact with

The Wonder Years - Cul-De-Sac

SBTRKT - LIMITLESS

Time: 2:18

Yeah

I'm just done with the rhetoric

Still go along with for the hell of it

SBTRKT - LIMITLESS

Overkill - I'm Alright

Time: 0:38

Oh my God on the end of a bayonet

Oh my God put wings on the rhetoric

Oh my God, I'm alright

Overkill - I'm Alright

The Dream Syndicate - The Way In

Time: 0:52

What a piece of the puzzle

Hot licks and rhetoric

Syntactical muzzle

The Dream Syndicate - The  Way In

Celtic Frost - Caress into Oblivion

Time: 1:30

des comptes morbides

tasting rhetoric hate

an attraction verified

Celtic Frost - Caress into Oblivion

The Kinks - Close to the Wire

Time: 3:20

For all the world to see

Your rhetoric's a quiz game

And a mystery to me

The Kinks - Close to the Wire

Aceyalone - Headaches & Woes

Time: 2:01

Don't give me no additives, no sedatives or preservatives

Or repetitive rhetoric you give, just let it live

Yet my head is pounding, I'm dealing with this load on my mind

Aceyalone - Headaches & Woes

Triumph - All the King's Horses

Time: 0:35

Can you tell me if we'll ever be the same

The rhetoric of power speaks the language of fear

But no border, no boundaries could ever hold us here

Triumph - All the King's Horses

Gravediggaz - Elimination Process

Time: 3:16

My genes, by all means, they backpass synthetics

Rhetoric, hair weaves, bare blunts and cigarettes

Sexist directors, crossdress infectors

Gravediggaz - Elimination Process

Rusted Root - Artificial Winter

Time: 0:30

Snowed in without a shovel plow

Rhetoric on the radio

Don't you go outside

Rusted Root - Artificial Winter

Cyndi Lauper - You Don't Know

Time: 0:27

You just need to belong somehow

Relying on rhetoric

Not well versed on topics

Cyndi Lauper - You Don't Know

Steve Taylor - Baby Doe

Time: 3:01

Some call the parents brave

Behind your disguise your rhetoric lies

You watched a baby starve

Steve Taylor - Baby Doe

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Flood of Red

Time: 0:58

Kiss the placid face of this frozen lake

Taken by the screaming rhetoric

Follow you into this suicide

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Flood of Red

Dr. Dre - Now Or Never

Time: 0:47

Spent my whole life movin' forward, I'm the evidence

Legendary veteran, heaven sent with rhetoric

Cookin' up with Martha Stewart, know you niggas smell the scent

Dr. Dre - Now Or Never

Loudon Wainwright III - Inaugural Blues

Time: 2:40

Points of light and talk of angels

It? s rhetoric, it must be told

I? m talking about my generation

Loudon Wainwright III - Inaugural Blues