I dare everyone to listen to this song and not shed a single tear.

[MorsePacific]

Before I even launch into a critique of the song, I'm going to go right out and say that either you come from a really harsh background or your white guilt drives you insane every time you even hear the word "black". I'm not going to cite any specific incidences from this topic, but multiple times you've mentioned how white people "forced black people into ghettos" and "hold their white privilege by pretending not to be racist". I'm not entirely sure where you're from, but I think you need to look at how extreme this particular view is.

How were blacks forced into ghettos? Do they not have the same opportunities to advance as any other person, regardless of color? Of course there's still racial bias in the country; we are only fifty years past segregation. There are just as many cases of white people being kept down by "the system" as there are black. Regardless of race, everyone has the chance for advancement in their lives if they are truly willing to work for it. People turn to petty crime for money because they're attractive and easy. It takes nothing to deal shitty skunk weed to fourteen year old kids, but it takes drive to work yourself out of the ghetto.

As for the song, well, it's not particularly good. For one, I've never liked Immortal Technique's flow. It's always seemed like someone trying to emulate Naz and failing terribly. In just the first few lines, he used a slant rhyme that made the entire verse almost incomprehensible and he has literally no technique other than acting like a hardass. The beat was played out in all kinds of ways. You can't take a piano riff and throw it on repeat with a half-assed boom-tap and call it a good beat. As for emotion? Not even a little. The entire song relied on nothing but shock value to induce anything. It made me sad to see someone throwing stories into your face and yelling "LOOK AT THIS" to bring out ANY reaction, but not a single emotion other than that. The minute and a half long account of a brutal incestuous rape was a necessary part of the song, yes? Ghetto kids don't do that; thugs do that shit.

If you want a real song about topics like this, go straight to Wu-Tang's CREAM. This was an over-exaggerated attempt at shocking the audience into recognizing society's ills. I'm not going to go out of my way and say that it's completely untrue; the ghetto is an absolutely miserable place. I'm just not going to shed a tear over this song in defense of "blacks in the ghetto". Or whatever your message is. I get more emotion out of Lonely Island songs.

 

[axlryder]

didn't have much sympathy for the mother either as she was obviously a pretty crappy parent to raise such an idiot.

I can't imagine an emotionally healthy person with passable knowledge of the 'ghetto', parenting and a poverty stricken life could possibly take a position of total apathy or contempt towards that mother's plight. I honestly can't. Note that when I say ghetto I'm speaking colloquially: places like Taylor Homes, Englewood, etc.

I actually thought it was a strange kind of poetic justice that her own parental neglect was the seed of her undoing. I doubt that's the message the author wanted to bring across, but it works for me.

The world is not a greek tragedy and the mother undoubtedly worked her ass off and got clean in high stress, low paying jobs for the sake of her son. She very easily could have just had him taken from her and put in some home or foster situation (and before you say she should have, that would undoubtedly be a worse living situation for the boy, those homes are nightmares). She could have treated him poorly. She could have stayed an escapist druggie. She did none of those things. Instead she was likely doing the best she could just like millions of single mothers. While the song doesn't specify, Any mother that makes those sacrifices for her son almost certainly puts some degree of effort into actually raising him. I'm start to realize you probably don't have very intimate knowledge of the living situation these single mothers in the ghetto have to deal with. There is no poetic justice here, just a victim of the system she was born into. If you want to blame her for getting pregnant and doing drugs, fine, I'll give you that, but to feel no pity for someone who clearly tried to amend their past mistakes and live their life for the sake of another, only to have that person beat and rape them, just seems incredibly emotionally bereft.

 

[Windown95]

The song was so terrible I couldn't stand to listen to it so I just looked up the lyrics, and I go nothing. Why am I suppose to feel sad? Because he had a tough life and killed his mother and felt bad about it afterwards? Gee why not think about that beforehand. Almost all of it was his choice. He could of chose differently but didn't. I might feel bad if it was a tough decision, but the stuff he did was just plain stupid and he got to deal with the consequences.

Here's the kind of song that makes me cry:

I've heard it over 100 times and I still tear up every time.

Okay, I absolutely could not take that song seriously. It's not because I don't find tales about people and their pets to be heartbreaking, because I do. Here's why:

It's the freaking Dr. Mario theme song! xD

Is it wrong that that is actually the first thought that entered my head after finishing the song. Nice to know I was not crazy and someone also thinks it is Dr.Mario

 

[LiquidGrape]

Sorta long :/ but while the story is quite sad, I've heard sadder stories, as I often read books concerning less then happy realities, so no tears sorry. While we are on the subject, this has been one of the few things to make me cry through pure verbal means.

To me, that speech always brought Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" to mind.


Accompanied by Brian Eno's music, I find this one of the single most affecting audial experiences imaginable.

 

[BonsaiK]

didn't have much sympathy for the mother either as she was obviously a pretty crappy parent to raise such an idiot.

I can't imagine an emotionally healthy person with passable knowledge of the 'ghetto', parenting and a poverty stricken life could possibly take a position of total apathy or contempt towards that mother's plight. I honestly can't. Note that when I say ghetto I'm speaking colloquially: places like Taylor Homes, Englewood, etc.

I actually thought it was a strange kind of poetic justice that her own parental neglect was the seed of her undoing. I doubt that's the message the author wanted to bring across, but it works for me.

The world is not a greek tragedy and the mother undoubtedly worked her ass off and got clean in high stress, low paying jobs for the sake of her son. She very easily could have just had him taken from her and put in some home or foster situation (and before you say she should have, that would undoubtedly be a worse living situation for the boy, those homes are nightmares). She could have treated him poorly. She could have stayed an escapist druggie. She did none of those things. Instead she was likely doing the best she could just like millions of single mothers. While the song doesn't specify, Any mother that makes those sacrifices for her son almost certainly puts some degree of effort into actually raising him. I'm start to realize you probably don't have very intimate knowledge of the living situation these single mothers in the ghetto have to deal with. There is no poetic justice here, just a victim of the system she was born into. If you want to blame her for getting pregnant and doing drugs, fine, I'll give you that, but to feel no pity for someone who clearly tried to amend their past mistakes and live their life for the sake of another, only to have that person beat and rape them, just seems incredibly emotionally bereft.

The time to clean up the drug habit is before you get pregnant. Nobody forced her to do drugs. Nobody forced her to become a mother in a harsh economic situation either. So she tried to do better later on, that's nice but it's a little bit too late to shut the gate when the horse has already bolted. Victim of the system my ass, more like a victim of her own dumb decision-making. I'll save my sympathy for fictional characters that don't wilfully ruin their own lives.

 

[axlryder]

didn't have much sympathy for the mother either as she was obviously a pretty crappy parent to raise such an idiot.

I can't imagine an emotionally healthy person with passable knowledge of the 'ghetto', parenting and a poverty stricken life could possibly take a position of total apathy or contempt towards that mother's plight. I honestly can't. Note that when I say ghetto I'm speaking colloquially: places like Taylor Homes, Englewood, etc.

I actually thought it was a strange kind of poetic justice that her own parental neglect was the seed of her undoing. I doubt that's the message the author wanted to bring across, but it works for me.

The world is not a greek tragedy and the mother undoubtedly worked her ass off and got clean in high stress, low paying jobs for the sake of her son. She very easily could have just had him taken from her and put in some home or foster situation (and before you say she should have, that would undoubtedly be a worse living situation for the boy, those homes are nightmares). She could have treated him poorly. She could have stayed an escapist druggie. She did none of those things. Instead she was likely doing the best she could just like millions of single mothers. While the song doesn't specify, Any mother that makes those sacrifices for her son almost certainly puts some degree of effort into actually raising him. I'm start to realize you probably don't have very intimate knowledge of the living situation these single mothers in the ghetto have to deal with. There is no poetic justice here, just a victim of the system she was born into. If you want to blame her for getting pregnant and doing drugs, fine, I'll give you that, but to feel no pity for someone who clearly tried to amend their past mistakes and live their life for the sake of another, only to have that person beat and rape them, just seems incredibly emotionally bereft.

The time to clean up the drug habit is before you get pregnant. Nobody forced her to do drugs. Nobody forced her to become a mother in a harsh economic situation either. So she tried to do better later on, that's nice but it's a little bit too late to shut the gate when the horse has already bolted. Victim of the system my ass, more like a victim of her own dumb decision-making. I'll save my sympathy for fictional characters that don't wilfully ruin their own lives.

ha, apparently fear doesn't enter into your equation. People there (the projects more or less) are afraid for their lives every day. Sex and drugs often times play into those fears. It's not a simple matter of "oh hey you should do some coke with me" or "I think we're in love". It's a matter of surviving. Of having nowhere to stay because your parents are drunk and violent so you went to a party because that was the only place you could sleep and someone got you drunk and you felt like shit and wanted someone to be with or didn't even realize what you were doing. A matter of being so emotional messed up by life you were born into that you don't even know which way is up. It's a matter of snorting coke because the world is tumbling down and you can't physically cope with the pressure anymore or being seriously bullied into doing it. I've lived on both sides of the fence. Suburban neighborhoods are a VERY different climate. I consider myself a level headed person, but I once did drugs simply because I was afraid not to. Not coke, mind you, but the point remains. Again, I'm getting a pretty clear picture you're not very intimately familiar with the things I outlined. What's more, how does the woman having once gotten pregnant and doing drugs before somehow make it okay that her son would betray her years of hard work and parenting? It doesn't at all. I'm sorry, I still see you as being rather cold right now. I'm sure you don't care though.

 

[BlazeRaider]

Sorta long :/ but while the story is quite sad, I've heard sadder stories, as I often read books concerning less then happy realities, so no tears sorry. While we are on the subject, this has been one of the few things to make me cry through pure verbal means.

To me, that speech always brought Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" to mind.


Accompanied by Brian Eno's music, I find this one of the single most affecting audial experiences imaginable.

Ah yes, that was also a very emotional piece of work for me as well, although the first time I heard it was with this music, and that one has been my favourite version ever since.

 

[BonsaiK]

didn't have much sympathy for the mother either as she was obviously a pretty crappy parent to raise such an idiot.

I can't imagine an emotionally healthy person with passable knowledge of the 'ghetto', parenting and a poverty stricken life could possibly take a position of total apathy or contempt towards that mother's plight. I honestly can't. Note that when I say ghetto I'm speaking colloquially: places like Taylor Homes, Englewood, etc.

I actually thought it was a strange kind of poetic justice that her own parental neglect was the seed of her undoing. I doubt that's the message the author wanted to bring across, but it works for me.

The world is not a greek tragedy and the mother undoubtedly worked her ass off and got clean in high stress, low paying jobs for the sake of her son. She very easily could have just had him taken from her and put in some home or foster situation (and before you say she should have, that would undoubtedly be a worse living situation for the boy, those homes are nightmares). She could have treated him poorly. She could have stayed an escapist druggie. She did none of those things. Instead she was likely doing the best she could just like millions of single mothers. While the song doesn't specify, Any mother that makes those sacrifices for her son almost certainly puts some degree of effort into actually raising him. I'm start to realize you probably don't have very intimate knowledge of the living situation these single mothers in the ghetto have to deal with. There is no poetic justice here, just a victim of the system she was born into. If you want to blame her for getting pregnant and doing drugs, fine, I'll give you that, but to feel no pity for someone who clearly tried to amend their past mistakes and live their life for the sake of another, only to have that person beat and rape them, just seems incredibly emotionally bereft.

The time to clean up the drug habit is before you get pregnant. Nobody forced her to do drugs. Nobody forced her to become a mother in a harsh economic situation either. So she tried to do better later on, that's nice but it's a little bit too late to shut the gate when the horse has already bolted. Victim of the system my ass, more like a victim of her own dumb decision-making. I'll save my sympathy for fictional characters that don't wilfully ruin their own lives.

ha, apparently fear doesn't enter into your equation. People there (the projects more or less) are afraid for their lives every day. Sex and drugs often times play into those fears. It's not a simple matter of "oh hey you should do some coke with me" or "I think we're in love". It's a matter of surviving. Of having nowhere to stay because your parents are drunk and violent so you went to a party because that was the only place you could sleep and someone got you drunk and you felt like shit and wanted someone to be with or didn't even realize what you were doing. A matter of being so emotional messed up by life you were born into that you don't even know which way is up. It's a matter of snorting coke because the world is tumbling down and you can't physically cope with the pressure anymore or being seriously bullied into doing it. I've lived on both sides of the fence. Suburban neighborhoods are a VERY different climate. I consider myself a level headed person, but I once did drugs simply because I was afraid not to. Not coke, mind you, but the point remains. Again, I'm getting a pretty clear picture you're not very intimately familiar with the things I outlined. What's more, how does the woman having once gotten pregnant and doing drugs before somehow make it okay that her son would betray her years of hard work and parenting? It doesn't at all. I'm sorry, I still see you as being rather cold right now. I'm sure you don't care though.

I work in the music industry. I can assure you I'm pretty familiar with the lot of it. In fact probably far too too familiar, hence my attitude about it.

And yeah you can see me as cold, that's okay.

 

[TehCookie]

The song was so terrible I couldn't stand to listen to it so I just looked up the lyrics, and I go nothing. Why am I suppose to feel sad? Because he had a tough life and killed his mother and felt bad about it afterwards? Gee why not think about that beforehand. Almost all of it was his choice. He could of chose differently but didn't. I might feel bad if it was a tough decision, but the stuff he did was just plain stupid and he got to deal with the consequences.

Here's the kind of song that makes me cry:

I've heard it over 100 times and I still tear up every time.

Okay, I absolutely could not take that song seriously. It's not because I don't find tales about people and their pets to be heartbreaking, because I do. Here's why:
It's the freaking Dr. Mario theme song! xD

I'm not sure if you are the first to notice or just the first to point it out but it is. The writer does a lot of remixes to old videogame songs and adds lyrics, though most the time they are a lot less serious than that one.

 

[axlryder]

didn't have much sympathy for the mother either as she was obviously a pretty crappy parent to raise such an idiot.

I can't imagine an emotionally healthy person with passable knowledge of the 'ghetto', parenting and a poverty stricken life could possibly take a position of total apathy or contempt towards that mother's plight. I honestly can't. Note that when I say ghetto I'm speaking colloquially: places like Taylor Homes, Englewood, etc.

I actually thought it was a strange kind of poetic justice that her own parental neglect was the seed of her undoing. I doubt that's the message the author wanted to bring across, but it works for me.

The world is not a greek tragedy and the mother undoubtedly worked her ass off and got clean in high stress, low paying jobs for the sake of her son. She very easily could have just had him taken from her and put in some home or foster situation (and before you say she should have, that would undoubtedly be a worse living situation for the boy, those homes are nightmares). She could have treated him poorly. She could have stayed an escapist druggie. She did none of those things. Instead she was likely doing the best she could just like millions of single mothers. While the song doesn't specify, Any mother that makes those sacrifices for her son almost certainly puts some degree of effort into actually raising him. I'm start to realize you probably don't have very intimate knowledge of the living situation these single mothers in the ghetto have to deal with. There is no poetic justice here, just a victim of the system she was born into. If you want to blame her for getting pregnant and doing drugs, fine, I'll give you that, but to feel no pity for someone who clearly tried to amend their past mistakes and live their life for the sake of another, only to have that person beat and rape them, just seems incredibly emotionally bereft.

The time to clean up the drug habit is before you get pregnant. Nobody forced her to do drugs. Nobody forced her to become a mother in a harsh economic situation either. So she tried to do better later on, that's nice but it's a little bit too late to shut the gate when the horse has already bolted. Victim of the system my ass, more like a victim of her own dumb decision-making. I'll save my sympathy for fictional characters that don't wilfully ruin their own lives.

ha, apparently fear doesn't enter into your equation. People there (the projects more or less) are afraid for their lives every day. Sex and drugs often times play into those fears. It's not a simple matter of "oh hey you should do some coke with me" or "I think we're in love". It's a matter of surviving. Of having nowhere to stay because your parents are drunk and violent so you went to a party because that was the only place you could sleep and someone got you drunk and you felt like shit and wanted someone to be with or didn't even realize what you were doing. A matter of being so emotional messed up by life you were born into that you don't even know which way is up. It's a matter of snorting coke because the world is tumbling down and you can't physically cope with the pressure anymore or being seriously bullied into doing it. I've lived on both sides of the fence. Suburban neighborhoods are a VERY different climate. I consider myself a level headed person, but I once did drugs simply because I was afraid not to. Not coke, mind you, but the point remains. Again, I'm getting a pretty clear picture you're not very intimately familiar with the things I outlined. What's more, how does the woman having once gotten pregnant and doing drugs before somehow make it okay that her son would betray her years of hard work and parenting? It doesn't at all. I'm sorry, I still see you as being rather cold right now. I'm sure you don't care though.

I work in the music industry. I can assure you I'm pretty familiar with the lot of it. In fact probably far too too familiar, hence my attitude about it.

And yeah you can see me as cold, that's okay.

Well I can understand that view I suppose. I don't agree with it, but with so many bullets flying around it's easy to judge those who don't do everything they can to get out of the line of fire (literally and metaphorically). I just try and take into account the people who get thrown in front of it. Maybe I'm just really empathetic or some shit. At least we can agree that the kid is a fuckwit.

 

[axlryder]

The song was so terrible I couldn't stand to listen to it so I just looked up the lyrics, and I go nothing. Why am I suppose to feel sad? Because he had a tough life and killed his mother and felt bad about it afterwards? Gee why not think about that beforehand. Almost all of it was his choice. He could of chose differently but didn't. I might feel bad if it was a tough decision, but the stuff he did was just plain stupid and he got to deal with the consequences.

Here's the kind of song that makes me cry:

I've heard it over 100 times and I still tear up every time.

Okay, I absolutely could not take that song seriously. It's not because I don't find tales about people and their pets to be heartbreaking, because I do. Here's why:
It's the freaking Dr. Mario theme song! xD

I'm not sure if you are the first to notice or just the first to point it out but it is. The writer does a lot of remixes to old videogame songs and adds lyrics, though most the time they are a lot less serious than that one.

this one always pulled at my heartstrings too, despite the intentionally awful singing

 

[Nouw]

I see your song, and raise you Mark Schultz's "Letters From War"

I was genuinely hoping that it was going to change mood halfway through. But I was disappointed. This song couldn't draw tears to my eye because it didn't show the true horrors of war. It showed the men returning, with no injuries at all. It showed them smiling and raising a family. It almost feels pro-war.

It's also cheerful and major, how can I feel sad to this? It's terribly one-sided, hiding the horrors. Unless you were being sarcastic?

 

[helljumper90]

Ill be honest with you, I'm not exactly what you would call normal. Kinda been desensitized to emotional stuff from a young age. I'm not a robot though. It just takes something really powerful to get me to react. A simple song can't do that for me.

 

[William Dickbringer]

Not a single tear, bro. It takes more than 'Homie grew up in the ghettos. Shit's sad, yo' to make me feel something.

Did you even bother listening to the whole song? I don't think you did and if you did you didn't really listen to it. Its not just "Homie grew up in the ghettos. Shit's sad, yo" and if you think so you are just an ignorant person as well as being racist.

I did, and I fail to see how I'm being racist when that's what the song's actually about.

That's not what its about its about the struggles of everyone and especially those in the black community who think their only way out is being a thug and selling drugs to make it. Which is continuously pushed by those in the media and the music business. You're clearly ignoring the struggles of those in the "ghettos" when guess who put them there white people. Guess who tries desperately to keep them there? White people like yourself by being ignorant and oblivious to the issues. Try to tell me I'm wrong when white people put black people in the situation they are in. The least you can do is listen to the whole song and put a little more thought into your response.

...and he's racist how? your comment right there is more racist then him saying what he said
but then again white guys can't make any jokes without being racist/sexist/homophobic/any other intolerance out there
so congratulations sir you are officially an idiot for that comment

oh I'm sorry was that racist? I'm sorry I should watch myself

 

[Instinct Blues]

...and he's racist how? your comment right there is more racist then him saying what he said
but then again white guys can't make any jokes without being racist/sexist/homophobic/any other intolerance out there
so congratulations sir you are officially an idiot for that comment

oh I'm sorry was that racist? I'm sorry I should watch myself

No you're just a dick. How was my comment there more racist? You're gonna dare complain that you can't make a joke without being called intolerant that just shows how entitled you are. "Oh man I can't say a few things because it might offend someone else my life is so tragic." Maybe you should show more respect to the people around you.

 

[Gasaraki]

...and he's racist how? your comment right there is more racist then him saying what he said
but then again white guys can't make any jokes without being racist/sexist/homophobic/any other intolerance out there
so congratulations sir you are officially an idiot for that comment

oh I'm sorry was that racist? I'm sorry I should watch myself

No you're just a dick. How was my comment there more racist? You're gonna dare complain that you can't make a joke without being called intolerant that just shows how entitled you are. "Oh man I can't say a few things because it might offend someone else my life is so tragic." Maybe you should show more respect to the people around you.

Maybe you should take your own advice, instead of trying to suck everyone into your ridiculous spiral of white guilt, not to mention that I already explained to you why you're a racist dick in a reply about 3 pages ago, which you then proceeded to completely ignore so that you could keep spouting your irrational world view.

 

[Instinct Blues]

You are an idiot. In fact, you are the worst kind of idiot. You are the kind of idiot who reads half of a book on Social Politics and Economics and thinks that makes them a god damned professor on the subject.
My brother is just like this. And you are just like him. You are the worst kind of assholes. Any time someone so much as thinks differently than you, you immediately attack them and try to act like they're ignorant and biased and know nothing of what they're talking about, all the while flailing desperately to not look like you've been caught. And there is no insult too low or hypocritical that your kind won't spout to defend yourselves.
Well guess what, 9 times out of 10, we know more than your kind. And we know you're idiots.

Even worse still is you can't accept that you've been caught. "White privilege", and "white guilt" ARE RACISM, and you are a racist for using them. Racist against who? White people.
I grew up poor, 90% of all video games and systems I own, I bought myself through working as a kid. If I wanted something, I earned it, you know where I learned it from? My mom and dad. Who were also poor, and worked to better their stations. You know who we kept down in the long run? Abso-fucking-lutely nobody.
My dad joined the Navy, my mom became a lifeguard and worked her way up to manager. You know how many people that put in the ghetto? Not a single fucking person. And shame on you for thinking inner city ghetto life is a phenomenon only found in black communities. You wretched racist.

My brother made me listen to this song a while ago too, I kicked in in the ass and told him to stop trying to tell me what's "deep". You want tragedy? How about the mother, who decided that she wanted a better life for her son than drugs and gangs, just for him to rape and kill her. That's the tragedy of the song, not the fuckwit who couldn't learn.

Grow up. You know absolutely nothing of this racism and "keeping the black man down" that you speak of. You.Know.Nothing. And every post you make just makes it more and more apparent.


And whomever mentioned Oedipus: This is absolutely nothing like it at all. The only similarity is the sex with mom. Oedipus killed his father (whom he didn't know was his father), and married his mother (whom h didn't know was his mother), as per a prophecy given to the king stating Oedipus (the king's son) would do so.
So the king took the infant and nailed him to a mountain, and Oedipus was freed, and practically conquered the kingdom. The mother-when she later learned that her new husband was in fact the son that her husband tried to off- hung herself.
VERY large difference. It's not even enough to be considered a rip-off, much less a rehash..

Actually you are an idiot I'm sorry did I offend you when I pointed out the truth that white people get certain privileges that other races aren't afforded. You have to realize that the upper class has divided and conquered the lower classes by race to keep everyone where they are. You're probably middle class and I'm middle class and we're probably not going to rise above that because the American Dream is bullshit. Its perpetuated by all these tales of rags to riches which conveniently leaves out all the people who got stepped on along the way to propel that person to their riches. The rich people in America are screwing over the middle class hardcore and most people don't even notice it because they still believe that they can somehow joint the elite because they are just like them, but they aren't a middle class white person has more in common with a middle class black person than they ever have in common with a rich white person.

You dare call me a racist for pointing out the fact that white privilege exists its just a fact of life that you should realize. Are you going to get hassled by the police ? Probably not because of your white privilege. Its just a fact that it exists and if you like your white privilege than accept it fully and admit your using it to better yourself because it allows you to more easily do that than a person of any other race. And btw I do know what I'm talking about because I study W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, Toni Morrison, etc. as well as all these problems in school. So you can just back the fuck off about me not knowing what I'm talking about because I know what I'm talking about. And don't try to pull the bullshit of saying "Oh America has a black president that magically solves the systemic problem of racism in America" because it doesn't work that way and if we're going to be honest Barack Obama is half-white. He's not a full African and he is not the lone ambassador for race relations its not just like what he says goes. He didn't just turn to all the people in America and go "Hey guys we're all cool now with everybody so no more racism."