Trust me, you need to be older than five to adhere to the justifactions he's got going. It's one of those things that comes with years of indoctrination and moral re-enforcement.Drakenian said:
I dare everyone to listen to this song and not shed a single tear.
- Thread starter Instinct Blues
- Start date
As per your request I have listened to the whole song and I am not only unmoved but a little annoyed I had to listen to such uninspired rubbish. You proclaimed this to be an emotionally moving song and it's not. It's a chronicle of a poor black man's stupidity. Had the song be about a young gifted man attempting a reasonable means to better his situation it might have had some worth. But as it stands it's about a young man wasting his life at every available turn for a childish fantasy. It inspires absolutely no compassion from me.Instinct Blues said:
Hm, you know it was a decent story I will be one to admit, though it certainly not worthy of tears: I don't know these people, and they don't know me- why should I care about anything that happens to them. Granted I will keep the moral of the story, but it something that could have happened to or been said by anyone, the preceding circumstances are hardly relevant.Instinct Blues said:
I swear, this site becomes more and more like FaceBook...
Hmmm... I'm not ignorant, or oblivious to the problems, however I don't even come from the US, and frankly just don't care. There's worse shit going on in the world than that! If you want oppression go to Syria/Yeman/Somalia or any of those other countries where people really dont have a chance. There is nothing stopping people in the US going out and learning a trade and getting a real job, putting the 'Gangsta' life behnd them. I've never seen any evidence of people putting effort in to try.Instinct Blues said:
I don't know, maybe I just don't understand fully, or see the whole picture, but people in this world are too quick to put blame in the past. The ammount of times I have been blamed for the slave trade, or dividing the middle east and Africa, just because I am white British. How was that anything to do with me personally? It happened decades before I was born! It doesn't mean I will contribute to it nowadays, or even have the faintest desire to start stuff like that again. So saying that someone is Racist because he didn't like a rap song, and then going on to imply that he supports white power and is oppressing you and adding to the problem makes you, mate, racist yourself...
I'm not saying that at all, but you have to realize as a white person you have the privilege to forget. By forgetting you free yourself from all guilt and pain you could feel from even hearing these stories that people lived through. I'm not saying he should be looked down upon but you shouldn't just casually toss the problems of minorities aside and say "It isn't my fault they can help themselves herp-derp" I think I should point out that I'm a white person and I'm grown up enough to admit that I have a privilege and I'm rejecting it. I don't want to forget or cast aside minority problems as just minority problems.ChadSexington said:
This song was emotional, but a song that truly brings tears is one that doesn't have a subject. a song that simply beauty or concept of happiness can bring you tears. This was more a sick story and kinda is unfair.
Okay, listened to it, didn't feel anything and I am as close to a ghetto lad as one gets in the area I grew up in.
Making race a primary component of your argument erodes most of the rational basis there is in poverty reduction and is an excellent way of robbing you of support from sensible people. I grew up in a poor area (or rather many poor areas as we constantly seemed to be on the move), I lived in a broken family with plenty of drinkers in it, and I am doing just fine.
The key to poverty reduction is universal schemes, not jumping out at anyone who feels less than enthusiastic about "more support for blacks" for being racist. The biggest issue for the American proletariat is the race issue and the traditions relating to it, which splits the working class vote and favours the wealthiest, playing the race card just sets the workers back further.
"Everyone" is stretching it quite a bit, I've never seen a skyscraper before, not have I been across the Atlantic. It seems to be focused primarily on black people rather than the working class as a whole which I find to be a bit distasteful. Making poverty a race-bound issue just ensures that anyone not affiliated with the race regarded as the recipient are going to be limited in their support.Instinct Blues said:
Huh, I must have missed it, where in the media do drug dealers, robbers and murderers become successful people through what they do? Unless they have to serve as villains in a poorly scripted 80s action flick that is.Instinct Blues said:
Really? So white people = evil? Yeah that's not racist.Instinct Blues said:
Normally I would oppose this view but...Instinct Blues said:
Making race a primary component of your argument erodes most of the rational basis there is in poverty reduction and is an excellent way of robbing you of support from sensible people. I grew up in a poor area (or rather many poor areas as we constantly seemed to be on the move), I lived in a broken family with plenty of drinkers in it, and I am doing just fine.
The key to poverty reduction is universal schemes, not jumping out at anyone who feels less than enthusiastic about "more support for blacks" for being racist. The biggest issue for the American proletariat is the race issue and the traditions relating to it, which splits the working class vote and favours the wealthiest, playing the race card just sets the workers back further.
Anyone else find it a little odd (or funny?) that the OP calls people racist because they don't agree with his opinion about this song, but goes on about how horrible white people are?
I'm sorry, was I supposed to feel something? The background music annoyed me more than anything, and the guy was just doing nothing for me.
I've heard this song a bunch of times and it makes me cry every damn time.TehCookie said:
Actually, it sounds more like he's saying that the death of a life-long companion, who's moments can never be recovered or recreated in any way, is more tragic from an empathetic stand-point than the story of a single youth who made bad decisions that pushed him too far over the edge and only stopped to think about what he's done after it started to affect him.Instinct Blues said:
The story in the song you presented is that of a generally unlikable character who, at any time, could have turned back before he went to far and simply decide to, y'know, not be a criminal. Hell, he could have even turned around right at the point he had his little epiphany and started some mission of redemption or, lacking any creativity or drive, Sepukku'd in an act of Redemption equals Death.
And don't use some argument that argues he had no choice in the matter, he was dragged in by a form of peer pressure, but that doesn't mean he had no choice but to succumb to their urgings.
The kid who lost his dog is presented in a simpler format, he's a one dimensional character who's only interest and friend is his dog. The loss of that dog is the loss of himself. He did not cause that dog to die, he only experienced it. He did not choose for that dog to die, and in no way influenced it, it just happened. The dog could have been replaced with anyone or anything, the message would have still hit home and been emotionally relevant.
Tell me you wouldn't cry if the dog were replaced with a little sister, and the sister was a cancer patient who died at a young age. Tell me you wouldn't cry if the dog were replaced with a grandfather who died of old age. Tell me you wouldn't cry if the dog were replaced with the child's first human friend who died due to some heart complications or other disease.
Maybe those examples push a little farther than the dog, but the Grandfather one is basically the same thing. Yeah it sort of equates People to an animal, but the point isn't what the companion is, the mere fact that the companion has always been there is what makes it so sad when it is ripped from the mortal coil.
Plus, the music involved is presented differently. The nostalgia in the "My first friend" video incited by the Dr. Mario theme causes us to think back to our lifetime companions, and to project ourselves onto this one-dimensional character. The child-like singing voice causes us to think with the same mind we had as a child, and to feel the same emotions we would have felt then.
The music in your video...made me lose interest in the story emotionally halfway through. I listened intently regardless, but were the story presented with more emotional depth, and a more engaging song, and words that held more meaning (by which I mean, less unnecessary expletives, they are what made me feel his story was insincere. Replace those with real words and we'll talk about tearjerkers. The piano in the background would have made nice backing if your song were...a song, but as it is a RAP (Rhythm Accompanied Poetry) it felt out of place, especially with the previously mentioned diction of disinterest.
....
Well hi, essay I should have written on things that actually mattered, why don't you get written when I have assignments that need to be done? Huh, why is that?
I was born in north Philadelphia and for the first eight years of my life, we were living off of welfare and food stamps. My older brother got into drugs in sixth grade and he would go missing for days at a time. Eventually it got bad enough that we moved to a tiny apartment in central PA and my dad started working for a gas company. At school, the teachers expected me to be the bad kid. They knew where I was from and they could see that the only clothes I had were three sizes too big. The thing is, I wasn't that kid. I didn't know how to read until I was seven, but even with that disadvantage, I worked at school so I wouldn't end up like my family. We all worked to turn our lives around.Instinct Blues said:
Now, my brother is a senior at Penn State and has been sober for years.
I am sitting valedictorian at my high school and am planning on attending Princeton.
It doesn't matter what race I am. There were both black and white families doing the same things mine did. Race is just an excuse. Man up and take responsibility for your own goddamn life.
First of all I'm a white person and I'm not saying white people in this topic or anywhere in this world right now contributed to the slave trade, or dividing up Africa. What I'm saying is that race is still an issue and people(mostly white people) don't seem to understand it because of their white privilege. I'm just trying to point out that it middle/ lower class whites that perpetuate the problem without even knowing it sometimes because they like being able to point at someone to say they are better than them when in actuality they should be brothers of the same cause. But apparently thats too difficult for everyone here to grasp.DeanoTheGod said:
Now, I'm sure its very sad, but I just can't empathize, I can't, its impossible, not with anyone, just with this specific story of how greed, turns good people to devils (the whole gods to wretched demons ect)I just don't empathize.Instinct Blues said:
Sorry, listened to all of it, every last melancholy note, but I find myself only finding apathy, even though I tried to empathize with Billy, but alas I got plenty of words, and yeah sorry, I am... No I'm not