I’m not sh**ting you. I really listened to this song on repeat, and with frequent pauses to write out every word of Black Thought’s rap. It is that good, and I also thought it would be kind of fun. The song will appear on The Roots 11th album, How I Got Over. Okayplayer posted a not yet finalized tracklisting last week, showing that the album would have 11 songs, including “Dear God 2.0”, which is a reinterpretation of “Dear God” by The Monsters of Folk.
That song appeared today on nahright. After watching the White Sox beat the Marlins, buying Aziz Ansari tickets, purchasing the new Black Keys album and experiencing the death of my car battery, I saw it on nahright and downloaded it. It was an awesome moment, so awesome that I decided to write out all of Black Thoughts- wait, I already said that part… yeah…
The song is a heart felt letter to God, without going much into who God is. The music is non-denominational, while Black Thought’s words and the feeling behind them are universal. Key lines convey confusion, frustration, and the nerve to keep pushing on shared by many “everyday people”. Black Thought paints himself a blue collar worker with lines such as “I get off work, go back to work…look how they got me on the Def Jam payment plan…” He also speaks for them, “If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?” The Roots’ frontman turns himself into the caller of a hotline, waiting through busy signals, long hold times, and somewhat shaky connections.
This has me psyched for new music from The Roots, which will drop June 22nd. See the lyrics and get the song below.
Dear God, I’m trying hard to reach you/Dear God, I see your face in all I do/sometimes, it’s so hard to believe you/but God, I know you have your reasons
They said, ‘he’s busy hold the line please.’ Don’t call me crazy, I thought maybe he could mind read/who does the blind lead?/show me a sign please/If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?/why do haters separate us cause we’re Siamese?/Technology’s turning the planet into zombies/everybody all in everybody’s dirty laundry/acid rain, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis/terrorists, crime sprees, assaults, and robberies/cops yelling ‘stop, freeze’/shoot’em before he try to leave/air quality so foul, I gotta try to breathe/endangered species, and we’re running out of trees/If I could hold the world in the palm of these/hands I would probably do away with these anomalies/everybody checking for the new award nominee/war is an atrocity, look at the poverty/ignoring the prophecies, more beef than broccoli/corporate monopoly, weak world economy/stock market’s toppling, mad marijuana, oxycotin and collata pin/everybody out of it, out of it.
It’s still me, one of your biggest fans/I get off work, go back to work, I better go and have my head examined/look how they got me on the Def Jam payment plan/well, I’m in the world of entertainment and, trying to keep a singing man sane for the paying fan/If I don’t make it through the night, slight change of plans/harp strings, angel wings, and praying hands/lord, forgive me for my shortcomings, for going on tour and ignoring a court summons/all I’m trying to do is live life to the fullest/they sent my dad to see you in a barrage of bullets/why is the world ugly when you made it in your image?/and why is living life such a fight to the finish?/for this high percentage, when the sky is the limit/each second is a minute/every hour’s infinite.