*** This is my first lyrical break down that I have done in a while. Thanks to Seez Mics for sending me these lyrics for the track “The Idea That People Are Better Than Ideas” – By Broken Clock. This should be interesting. ***
Headphones on – No distractions
Head home to inscribe head stone, prescribe the best inaction
This track is my favorite tracks from the album, and it is also the first track. This is the first two lines from the song but to me also some of the most meaningful ones. Headphones on, no distractions. Is just as it sounds. Basically we all need some way to block out the world to think. There are many choices out there. This happens to be my favorite method also. To put the headphones on and just let the music take to another place while I relax and forget. Forget about life and the world around me.
I can’t fake it inside but I can take it in stride
And then take you aside to say they can survive
With a famous surprise but not saving their lives
Stripped naked of lies in a blanket divided
I will start with the first line here. I can’t fake it inside but I can take it in stride. To me this means what it sounds. A person can’t fake the world around them on the inside but on the outside they can. They can make you think that it is all alright. And then take you aide to say they can survive. Basically saying that they will be alright. That no matter what happens in their life that they can survive. With A famous surprise but not saving their lives. This one here could mean a few things. One could mean that no matter what they try it’s not saving lives. And the other basically with a surprise not known could have the chance at saving lives but falls short. Stripped naked of lies in a blanket divided. Lies divide us all. So we are stripped naked of all of them and are divided. Where does it lead us naked and alone.
Celebrating the vibe of all races combined
And their faith intertwined with safe inner mind
Now escaping the bind of all statements denying
The most sacred design for the raped and the blind
Celebrating the vibe of all races combined. Everyone is one. The vibes are strong. And their faith intertwined with safe inner mind. Faith, good old faith, some people feel that it the only way they are safe in their minds is with faith itself. So they will pray and pray and inside they are safe for now. Now escaping the bind of all statements denying. The most sacred design for the raped in the blind. In the land of the blind the man with one eye is king. This statement works well with this in a few ways. To escape the binds of all statements one will just up and deny it all. But those who are less then fortunate are raped and blinded by the man who can see.
Religion is decision and an educated guess is less
Respected than an uninformed belief
Do you believe in integrity especially
When alcohol lets you let it be
Secret ingredient in the recipe
Food for thought mood for mania
Some squares come full circle
Ask anyone who only falls in love with what hurts you
Religion has been the basis of human society for as far back as man. So with a line like “Religion is decision and an educated guess is less” hits more home with a lot of people. Because to most of the world there is nothing more than just religion. When someone comes a long and challenges religion it means a lot less then anything as stated in the next line “Respected than an uninformed belief.” Do you believe in integrity especially? Same thing with this line would you believe in something that really holds no integrity except from the history of man? It goes into the next couple lines talking about alcohol and food for thought. Some feel that alcohol helps them reach that higher being to reach that moment in life where it’s all ok. The last line to me is the key line that brings this part full circle per say.
Banging on the keys, Hanging from the trees
Disease says please and the host says stay awhile
Fake a smile in the only reality left
So much space and it’s all gonna fall apart
Who’s at fault when the fault line falls in line
With its only purpose in the duration of all time?
Time’s a joke told to stones at the bottom of the food chain
Primitive man hanging from the trees and banging on the things to get heard. To create a sound instead of grunts and moans. This could be said a lot about today’s standards with music. I will touch a little more on that in the end of this. The next line talks about a disease. How a man gave up and just let the “disease” stay. In this reality we all have to fake a smile. To hide behind that mask. The next line means what it means. So much space and it’s all gonna fall apart. But who’s at fault when the fault line falls in line? When things fall in line and shakes the world up. Words have the ability to shake the world. The last line in this part just like the others hits hard in ways. With time being referred to as a joke and being at the bottom of the food chain means that we have no need for time. That time is a huge joke that’s lasted until last. No time needed when you are the bottom.
If I were you, I’d be proud of how to break the fall
When I get a busy signal in response to a mating call
I’m not afraid of ya’ll put the cameras away
Of course I understand what you say
Just not who you say it to
One can be proud of a lot of things. But why with a breaking of a fall. We have been told so much in life so when someone creates lies or beliefs that when they tell you the lie its suppose to help break the fall. The second line states about a said busy signal to a mating call. About how the person heard the call once but when they finally came back to response they get nothing but a busy signal. Some say better late than never but when is being late too much? Being out in the spot light most people can be scared away. Hide from the views of man. People can hear what you say but they refuse to see who they are meant for. So when someone comes along and “preaches” to you about anything you would listen but yet not care who those words are meant for.
I remember falling in love with the idea
That people are better than ideas
Which is honest, but hard to explain yet easy to believe
At the end of the day, we’re all reaching for a key
A sober man silently hopes to stand quietly
This part of the song is one reason I fell in love with this track. I remember falling in love with the idea that people are better than ideas. To me this means what it sounds like. Ideas are always better on paper. Sounds good and we love them but yet we fall in love with the person behind the idea. The moment where our heart fills with love over some amazing idea. Which is honest but heard to explain yet easy to believe. How much more truth can we get from that. It’s hard to explain what an artist is feeling when they write the song unless you are the artist yourself. So we will believe it before we try to make sense of it. And in the end of the day we are all reaching for our key. A way to unlock those ideas. A sober man silently hopes to stand quietly. This can go back to a few lines before it. About how alcohol or any kind of “drugs” plays an important part of any day activities. So it takes all his power not to stand up and speak his mind.
In an anxious society ruled by social anxiety
And it ain’t just the ancient
Mind fuck of being complacent, it’s the basic
Entirety of finally coming to grasp
With the fact that there’s nothing to grasp, ask or have
Cause the only wrong question is the one you don’t ask
Cause the only right answer is the one you don’t have
I suffer from social anxiety so this first line hits more to me. Our society is anxious and will jump at the sound of anything. But we get scared and hide ourselves away from the things we don’t understand. And it’s been around forever. We have had our minds brain washed over the course of human history to believe one way and not walk a different path. But that’s the basic of it all. Entirety of finally coming to grasp with the fact that there’s nothing to grasp. Nothings left to grasp. We have been everywhere and people have done everything that they think that it’s the way to go. Cause the only wrong question is the one you don’t ask. Cause the only right answer is the one you don’t have. Challenge the system, ask questions. We will not get very far without asking questions. So we keep silent. We work day in and day out for the same thing. And we will until we put those headphones on and hide ourselves away from the grasp and the key we yearn for.
Both halves of good and evil are masterminds
That learned long ago to simply laugh and cry
To pass the time after being asked why
Everything including themselves has to die
Life has been a struggle between good and evil for years. So we get played upon the words and the hopes that it will get better (good) and then it never happens (evil). But in turn we will both laugh and cry like we was told to years ago by your parents. The last two lines here basically means to me that we will pass the time asking the questions we don’t know, or dream of the idea that we wish to believe but end up dead.
I remember falling in love with the idea
That people are better than ideas
Which is honest, but hard to explain yet easy to believe
At the end of the day, we’re all reaching for a key
A sober man silently hopes to stand quietly
And this is the end of the song. I won’t go back and break this one down again so I will end the breakdown here and give the last final words.
I started writing this a couple days ago but realized that this project became more than I thought it would be. I wanted to get this track right. To give my own feelings about it. To break down the words and such. I wrote half of this one day and the rest today. I don’t go back and read it but instead I just write down what I am feeling about that line at that time or how I felt when listening to it. I asked Cole (writer/rapper of this project) about why he wrote the track. He said “I had spent so much time and energy funneling myself into the standard rap format that I wanted to cut ties from structure and allow feel to guide my words, not a template.” I myself already felt this way about his works as it. That it wasn’t the radio I’m going to fuck a chick, boom boom from the speakers radio rap that is out there. He goes on to say this about this track “the song's meaning is perfectly explained in the title, but the title is long and ambiguous by rap standards. I spent some time thinking of how I could whittle the title down to something short and easily grasped, but eventually I just said fuck it. The purpose of this project is to eschew format and embrace meaning, so that's the title.” The idea that people are better than ideas. Where do we go from here? This man has caught my attention over the years but it wasn’t until the Broken Clock album until I really fell in love with his idea.
So people before you go out and buy the new Soulja Boy album just remember it’s been done before. That the radio music is full of rehashed ideas. Sure it looks good on paper and will bring in money but where is the heart? I have been asking myself that for years. Where is the heart? Where are the feelings, the true meanings? I don’t think the world could handle real music with heart. I don’t think anyone can believe it. So where do we stand? For now back at that idea.
