This post was contributed by SOC 3013 student, Brittany Nicole Cannan.
In my opinion, Frank Ocean is one of the best rap artists of our time. He recently came out with an album, Channel Orange, and "Super Rich Kids" is one of its feature songs. I've posted the lyrics below along with the video so you can better visualize what he is saying. The song is a play on children who grow up in families with lots of money, but with parents who are neglectful due to over-involvement with careers. These kids then are often unsupervised and have plenty of time to mess around. I really relate to this as much of my childhood and teen years was also spent at home alone, and although I didn't get into too much trouble, plenty of other children in my neighborhood did. There were parties thrown every weekend, kids getting arrested, and cops always seemed to be circling the neighborhood. This song includes drug references as well, such as "too many bowls of that green, no lucky charms" and "too many white lies and white lines." In all, Ocean provides vivid insights about some of the struggles facing children who grow up in otherwise privileged homes.
Too many bottles of this wine we can’t pronounce
Too many bowls of that green, no Lucky Charms
The maids come around too much
Parents ain’t around enough
Too many joy rides in daddy’s Jaguar
Too many white lies and white lines
Super rich kids with nothing but loose ends
Super rich kids with nothing but fake friends
[Verse 1: Frank Ocean]
Start my day up on the roof
There’s nothing like this type of view
Point the clicker at the tube
I prefer expensive news
New car, new girl
New ice, new glass
New watch, good times babe
It's good times, yeah
She wash my back three times a day
This shower head feels so amazing
We’ll both be high, the help don’t stare
They just walk by, they must don’t care
A million one, a million two
A hundred more will never do
[Refrain]
[Bridge]
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Oh, real love
[Verse 2: Earl Sweatshirt]
Close your eyes to what you can't imagine
We are the xany-gnashing
Caddy-smashing, bratty ass
He mad, he snatched his daddy's Jag
And used the shit for batting practice
Adam and Annie thrashing
Purchasing crappy grams with half the hand of cash you handed
Panic and patch me up
Pappy done latch-keyed us
Toying with Raggy Anns and Mammy done had enough
Brash as fuck, breaching all these aqueducts
Don’t believe us
Treat us like we can’t erupt, yup
[Alternate Verse 2: Frank Ocean]
Polo sweats and Hermes blankets
Them label hoes be stealing my shit
And all they clothes revealing they tits
Pills, high enough to touch the rim in that bitch
We party in my living room
Cause father is gone
And he left me this empire
That runs on its own
So all I got to do is whatever the fuck I want
All we ever do is whatever the fuck we want
[Verse 3: Frank Ocean]
We end our day up on the roof
I say I’ll jump, I never do
But when I’m drunk I act a fool
Talking bout, do they sew wings on tailored suits
I’m on that ledge, she grabs my arm
She slaps my head
It's good times, yeah
Sleeve rips off, I slip, I fall
The market's down like 60 stories
And some don’t end the way they should
My silver spoon has fed me good
A million one, a million cash
Close my eyes and feel the crash
[Refrain]
[Outro]
Real love, ain't that something rare
I’m searching for a real love, talking bout real love
Real love yeah
Real love
I’m searching for a real love
Talking bout a real love
Too many bowls of that green, no Lucky Charms
The maids come around too much
Parents ain’t around enough
Too many joy rides in daddy’s Jaguar
Too many white lies and white lines
Super rich kids with nothing but loose ends
Super rich kids with nothing but fake friends
[Verse 1: Frank Ocean]
Start my day up on the roof
There’s nothing like this type of view
Point the clicker at the tube
I prefer expensive news
New car, new girl
New ice, new glass
New watch, good times babe
It's good times, yeah
She wash my back three times a day
This shower head feels so amazing
We’ll both be high, the help don’t stare
They just walk by, they must don’t care
A million one, a million two
A hundred more will never do
[Refrain]
[Bridge]
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Real love, I’m searching for a real love
Oh, real love
[Verse 2: Earl Sweatshirt]
Close your eyes to what you can't imagine
We are the xany-gnashing
Caddy-smashing, bratty ass
He mad, he snatched his daddy's Jag
And used the shit for batting practice
Adam and Annie thrashing
Purchasing crappy grams with half the hand of cash you handed
Panic and patch me up
Pappy done latch-keyed us
Toying with Raggy Anns and Mammy done had enough
Brash as fuck, breaching all these aqueducts
Don’t believe us
Treat us like we can’t erupt, yup
[Alternate Verse 2: Frank Ocean]
Polo sweats and Hermes blankets
Them label hoes be stealing my shit
And all they clothes revealing they tits
Pills, high enough to touch the rim in that bitch
We party in my living room
Cause father is gone
And he left me this empire
That runs on its own
So all I got to do is whatever the fuck I want
All we ever do is whatever the fuck we want
[Verse 3: Frank Ocean]
We end our day up on the roof
I say I’ll jump, I never do
But when I’m drunk I act a fool
Talking bout, do they sew wings on tailored suits
I’m on that ledge, she grabs my arm
She slaps my head
It's good times, yeah
Sleeve rips off, I slip, I fall
The market's down like 60 stories
And some don’t end the way they should
My silver spoon has fed me good
A million one, a million cash
Close my eyes and feel the crash
[Refrain]
[Outro]
Real love, ain't that something rare
I’m searching for a real love, talking bout real love
Real love yeah
Real love
I’m searching for a real love
This song speaks such truth! I do not agree, hes not that great of an artist, but this song is good. Frank says super rich kids with nothing but loose ends. This means that these kids that have all these things that buy them friends, and like materialistic things, but where will that get you in life. you may have been fed with a silver spoon since birth but how far is that really going to get you in life in the sense or acquiring your own wealth or even if you lose all the money and all of your "friends" are all flaked out?
ReplyDeleteSamone Lindsey ^^
ReplyDeleteI have a few friends that can relate very well with this song. When I met them freshmen year they were use to having their rooms cleaned by their maids and meals already prepared for them. One thing I found kind of strange was when they had financial issues they would automatically call their parents because all the parents did was give the child money. But when my friends were sick, hurt, sad or stressed out about something they would call home not to their parents, but to the maids or nannies. After asking them about it they explained how the maids/nannies were more of a parent than the actual parent. The maids/nannies were the ones to give them attention, show them love and actually care to listen to them rather than say "I'm sorry" and transfer money into their checking account. I think in the part when Frank Ocean is singing "real love, I'm searching for a real love", he means a love not associated with material things like the parents,but a love that's patient, kind, understanding and gentle like the maids/nannies.
ReplyDeleteB.Malloy
This song is all too familiar. I have an uncle who started a grocery store business in the DC area. My cousins are my age. During the start up of the business we helped out as much as we could. Over the years the business became more and more successful and in that success. My uncle neglected his kids. So much that they would act out until the got what they wanted. It got so bad that one time they were going to the Bahamas my cousin did not want to go. I was like hey let me go in his place. My cousin just told his dad...what's the point when we go to the Bahamas you are just going to work and leave us at the beach. His success is great he is a millionaire but now tries to be more involved with his kids. But it seems too little too late. Not also did it affect him but his kids are like real needy. It seems that they also cannot fend for themselves because one lives at home still and the other lives two houses down from their dad so that incase they need him he will run. They had Material things just not a parenthood that my cousins were looking for.
ReplyDeleteComment above submitted by Josue Castro
DeleteI do agree with the indirect message that rich kids tend to miss out on real life experiences because they are over-pampered by their parents. I know kids from wealthy families that are 21 years old and don't even have a credit history yet. When Mom and Dad do everything for the kid, they are only setting them up for failure when they aren't around anymore. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day--teach a man to fish, you've fed him for life.
ReplyDelete-Scott Jarvis