The Police - Spirits in the Material World
Time: 1:12
♪
But it's the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world

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
Time: 1:12
♪
But it's the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world

Time: 2:34
If we the new slaves
I am Frederick Douglass of rhetoric ahead the the others
You motherfuckas better get free

Time: 1:08
Gear I wear got 'em goin' in fear
Rhetoric said
Read just a bit ago

Time: 0:46
I didn't get to kill you
Rhetoric, better look both ways
I gotta get an arm through

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

Time: 1:16
In the gym like I'm gettin' ripped
My rhetoric, nigga let it drip
A half a billion by 36

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

Time: 1:32
But fuck it all, it doesn't matter
Ayo I'm on a lyrical, poetic rhetoric
Lyrical miracle, satirical shit

Time: 1:48
Contagious, hysteric rages
But it's time to let the rhetoric go up in flames
Assault with your cryptic words

Time: 0:08
Filled with disgust
Strip back the utopian rhetoric
And you'll find a sickness at the core

Time: 1:23
Bum, bum, bum, bum (I'ma be the one)
I turn letters to rhetoric
Turnin' feathers to fetishes, dispersin' treasure

Time: 2:08
A perverse request
They continue the same rhetoric
These derelicts that profit

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)

Time: 1:10
The only problem is
Your fuckin' rhetoric
We're more in danger than before you took power

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

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

Time: 1:36
Wet raindrop lull small rationing
Exhumed the rhetoric of
Break the weak in single file

Time: 2:22
Fluently spoken here
Tho' the rhetoric of government
May keep us worlds apart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time: 0:31
Common sense just swerved every time I got served
Stress, frustration, empty rhetoric
Cold as winter in Connecticut, compassion lacking deficit

Time: 2:46
Lose your discretion.
Soon, you'll not fall from grace endorse their rhetoric you fade,
they prosper.

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?

Time: 2:45
The future is at head
This is no time for phony rhetoric
This is no time for political speech

Time: 3:00
His dominance of ignorance
Was rhetoric that made no sense
Some believed in all the lies

Time: 0:38
If you're gonna leave it,
And the rhetoric is there,
If you're gonna read it,

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

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

Time: 1:28
Ain't gonna change my way of life
Twisted rhetoric, I won't subscribe
Refuse to be denied

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

Time: 0:46
That makes me more upset
People talk all this rhetoric
Forgive but not forget

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

Time: 0:57
I could speak with tongues of Angels
Apologetics in a slick rhetoric
Either way without love my words are dead

Time: 1:27
Totem to pick
Monitor sexual rhetoric
Up in the swelling storm

Time: 2:03
Ten thousand reasons why
The rhetoric is endless
I see the laughter in your eyes

Time: 0:32
Though horses could easily pull me apart
No rhetoric and no gold for bards
♪

Time: 2:24
Popped a mescaline in like a breath mint, benevolence
Diamond elements, million dollar rhetoric
Remy Martin spill on the carpet

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

Time: 2:18
Yeah
I'm just done with the rhetoric
Still go along with for the hell of it

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

Time: 0:52
What a piece of the puzzle
Hot licks and rhetoric
Syntactical muzzle

Time: 1:30
des comptes morbides
tasting rhetoric hate
an attraction verified

Time: 3:20
For all the world to see
Your rhetoric's a quiz game
And a mystery to me

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

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

Time: 3:16
My genes, by all means, they backpass synthetics
Rhetoric, hair weaves, bare blunts and cigarettes
Sexist directors, crossdress infectors

Time: 0:30
Snowed in without a shovel plow
Rhetoric on the radio
Don't you go outside

Time: 0:27
You just need to belong somehow
Relying on rhetoric
Not well versed on topics

Time: 3:01
Some call the parents brave
Behind your disguise your rhetoric lies
You watched a baby starve

Time: 0:58
Kiss the placid face of this frozen lake
Taken by the screaming rhetoric
Follow you into this suicide

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

Time: 2:40
Points of light and talk of angels
It? s rhetoric, it must be told
I? m talking about my generation
