"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Hey, my name's Malik and Killer Mike's my dad
If you don't like what he's sayin', so what
That's life
Told you last tape I'm a killer man
I'm a rapper, what the fuck do I know
Well I'm also a nigga that
Came off Martin Luther King, man
Son of a dope lady
And I went to fuckin' Morehouse nigga
I accomplished something
I became something nigga
That's who I am to criticize any nigga
Oprah, Bill, Clinton, Cosby, anybody
The fat bitch singing show over, end opera
Leader of the crack Rat Pack, I Sinatra
They say I dissed Oprah i'm like so what
I never get to jump up and down on a sofa
(that's life) now watch me as I Cruise
Like Tom through the slums
Where the education's poor and
The children growing dumb
In the section of the city
Where saditty's don't come
Where Mr cosby and Ms winfrey won't come
Unless it's a hurricane then FEMA don't come
Coming live from the city where
The Dreamer came from
Standing on the same corners
That he stood upon
I got violence in my waistband
Death in my palm
Ask 'em am I a bad guy, ya goddamn right
I done seen how ya do a
Nigga when he doin' right
The Dream died on a balcony
Standin' at a hotel
Now niggas whippin' coke gel and a O tale
We desegregated - put black with the white
No longer marching for rights
They sparking a pipe (that's life)
Pipe dreams, crack fiends
Cars look like ice cream
Kids see the bling-bling and they
Want them nice things
All cause of tennis shoes our
Kids drop out of schools
They said be like Mike, so ball nigga
(that's life)
Now help me understand something
If you a leader and you really
Mean something to your people
Ain't you supposed to be in
The community with your people?
Ain't you supposed to be there?
Like the only people I see in the communities
Are rappers and ball players
Where the fuck all y'all doctors?
Where y'all bourgeoisie niggas at?
All the kids got is us, Grind Time rap game
Read an old magazine, check out a new dress
I be havin' conversations with Cornel West
Killer Mike don't give a damn if
It's me ya ain't likin'
The last great debate I had
Was with Michael Eric Dyson
Call me a dumb rapper girl stop, pardon me
You be hard pressed to find
Another rapper smart as me
Maybe Jay-Z, 2Pac, C-U-B-E
But Oprah'd rather put Superhead on TV
Now whatcha white audience gon'
Think about we the same white audience that
Watch Bill O' Reilly
I saw the smirk on they face
When you came at Luda
The same nice ladies that
Forgave Martha Stewart so I can be a crook
Take money off the books
Just as long as I'm liked
By a rich man's wife?
OK, hold up i can't rap about doing crime
But if I actually do crime, and do time
I can come back out and have a TV show
With an all white audience
If I rob shareholders of millions?
But if I rap about getting
Some money on the block it's a problem?
Are you fuckin' retarded?
I'm not even gonna tell you how
Stupid you are right now
Cause you should already know
Grind Time Rap Game (that's life)
Niecey had a man, not a mouse or a mole
When the pressure come knockin
I ain't runnin in a hole
George Bush don't like blacks
No shit, Sherlock
And his daddy CIA had flooded
The hood with rock
And his momma said the women
Oughta feel at home
Gettin' raped in the bathroom
In the Superdome
The comment Kanye made was damn near right
But Bush hate poor people
Be 'em black or white (that's life)
Hell yeah I said it, cause Oprah won't say it
And Bill won't say it
And they still won't say it
If you really bout intelligence
You really know I'm right
If you lookin' for some leadership
Look for Killer Mike (that's life)
Lookin' for a movement
It's Grind Time Rap Game
Kids see us in the street
And go bang bang bang
They see me on the street and
On the corners they hang
Myspace Grind Time Online, join the gang
Aye man, all you adults out there
All you supposed grown people
Would you please stop lying to young people
Could we please have a
Moment of fuckin' honesty? You know honesty?
The shit you ask young people
To be with you when
You ask are they havin' sex or doin' drugs?
Could we please stop fuckin' lying
Like you preachers out there
Who spread the myth
That young boys who sag their
Pants picked that shit up in prison to let
Niggas know they homosexuals
You in your faggot
Twisted mind know that ain't true
You sick fuck, for even sayin' that shit
We wear our fuckin' pants big
Because our mothers were too poor
To buy our size
So they had to buy two or three sizes up
Call it what it is nigga: poverty
It's fuckin' poverty you know poverty
The opposite of the big fuckin'
Cars and planes you drive mutherfucka
To all you rich bourgeoisie niggas out there
Stop ignoring your cousins in the ghetto
Because they're there
Stop looking down on 'em
Stop using crack addicts and Mexicans
As cheap labor to build your fuckin' houses
And then shitting on poor
Black people and Latins you pieces of shit
That's for you rich motherfuckas:
Black and white in the mean time us rappers
Us lowly b-boys and
Us motherfuckin' athletes'll
Be here in the ghetto
Servicing the motherfuckin' children
We are the new Robin Hoods
We are the Pied Pipers
We will lead the kids into a better
Life than the motherfuckin' lies you doing
Kids grow up, be doctors, be lawyers
Just don't be liars and connivers like
The ones we got now young men, grow up
Be clergymen, be a preacher
Just don't be a motherfuckin' greedy hog like
Most of the ones we got now
Grind Time Rap Game bang, bang, bang
If you don't like what I'm sayin'that's life
If you don't like what he's sayin', so what
That's life
Told you last tape I'm a killer man
I'm a rapper, what the fuck do I know
Well I'm also a nigga that
Came off Martin Luther King, man
Son of a dope lady
And I went to fuckin' Morehouse nigga
I accomplished something
I became something nigga
That's who I am to criticize any nigga
Oprah, Bill, Clinton, Cosby, anybody
The fat bitch singing show over, end opera
Leader of the crack Rat Pack, I Sinatra
They say I dissed Oprah i'm like so what
I never get to jump up and down on a sofa
(that's life) now watch me as I Cruise
Like Tom through the slums
Where the education's poor and
The children growing dumb
In the section of the city
Where saditty's don't come
Where Mr cosby and Ms winfrey won't come
Unless it's a hurricane then FEMA don't come
Coming live from the city where
The Dreamer came from
Standing on the same corners
That he stood upon
I got violence in my waistband
Death in my palm
Ask 'em am I a bad guy, ya goddamn right
I done seen how ya do a
Nigga when he doin' right
The Dream died on a balcony
Standin' at a hotel
Now niggas whippin' coke gel and a O tale
We desegregated - put black with the white
No longer marching for rights
They sparking a pipe (that's life)
Pipe dreams, crack fiends
Cars look like ice cream
Kids see the bling-bling and they
Want them nice things
All cause of tennis shoes our
Kids drop out of schools
They said be like Mike, so ball nigga
(that's life)
Now help me understand something
If you a leader and you really
Mean something to your people
Ain't you supposed to be in
The community with your people?
Ain't you supposed to be there?
Like the only people I see in the communities
Are rappers and ball players
Where the fuck all y'all doctors?
Where y'all bourgeoisie niggas at?
All the kids got is us, Grind Time rap game
Read an old magazine, check out a new dress
I be havin' conversations with Cornel West
Killer Mike don't give a damn if
It's me ya ain't likin'
The last great debate I had
Was with Michael Eric Dyson
Call me a dumb rapper girl stop, pardon me
You be hard pressed to find
Another rapper smart as me
Maybe Jay-Z, 2Pac, C-U-B-E
But Oprah'd rather put Superhead on TV
Now whatcha white audience gon'
Think about we the same white audience that
Watch Bill O' Reilly
I saw the smirk on they face
When you came at Luda
The same nice ladies that
Forgave Martha Stewart so I can be a crook
Take money off the books
Just as long as I'm liked
By a rich man's wife?
OK, hold up i can't rap about doing crime
But if I actually do crime, and do time
I can come back out and have a TV show
With an all white audience
If I rob shareholders of millions?
But if I rap about getting
Some money on the block it's a problem?
Are you fuckin' retarded?
I'm not even gonna tell you how
Stupid you are right now
Cause you should already know
Grind Time Rap Game (that's life)
Niecey had a man, not a mouse or a mole
When the pressure come knockin
I ain't runnin in a hole
George Bush don't like blacks
No shit, Sherlock
And his daddy CIA had flooded
The hood with rock
And his momma said the women
Oughta feel at home
Gettin' raped in the bathroom
In the Superdome
The comment Kanye made was damn near right
But Bush hate poor people
Be 'em black or white (that's life)
Hell yeah I said it, cause Oprah won't say it
And Bill won't say it
And they still won't say it
If you really bout intelligence
You really know I'm right
If you lookin' for some leadership
Look for Killer Mike (that's life)
Lookin' for a movement
It's Grind Time Rap Game
Kids see us in the street
And go bang bang bang
They see me on the street and
On the corners they hang
Myspace Grind Time Online, join the gang
Aye man, all you adults out there
All you supposed grown people
Would you please stop lying to young people
Could we please have a
Moment of fuckin' honesty? You know honesty?
The shit you ask young people
To be with you when
You ask are they havin' sex or doin' drugs?
Could we please stop fuckin' lying
Like you preachers out there
Who spread the myth
That young boys who sag their
Pants picked that shit up in prison to let
Niggas know they homosexuals
You in your faggot
Twisted mind know that ain't true
You sick fuck, for even sayin' that shit
We wear our fuckin' pants big
Because our mothers were too poor
To buy our size
So they had to buy two or three sizes up
Call it what it is nigga: poverty
It's fuckin' poverty you know poverty
The opposite of the big fuckin'
Cars and planes you drive mutherfucka
To all you rich bourgeoisie niggas out there
Stop ignoring your cousins in the ghetto
Because they're there
Stop looking down on 'em
Stop using crack addicts and Mexicans
As cheap labor to build your fuckin' houses
And then shitting on poor
Black people and Latins you pieces of shit
That's for you rich motherfuckas:
Black and white in the mean time us rappers
Us lowly b-boys and
Us motherfuckin' athletes'll
Be here in the ghetto
Servicing the motherfuckin' children
We are the new Robin Hoods
We are the Pied Pipers
We will lead the kids into a better
Life than the motherfuckin' lies you doing
Kids grow up, be doctors, be lawyers
Just don't be liars and connivers like
The ones we got now young men, grow up
Be clergymen, be a preacher
Just don't be a motherfuckin' greedy hog like
Most of the ones we got now
Grind Time Rap Game bang, bang, bang
If you don't like what I'm sayin'that's life
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
kierkegaardluvzcandi.blogspot.com/2007/01/killer-mike-thats-life-lyrics.html was used a source of most of the lyrics, but I made some corrections and added a couple missing lines.
you can add rics.html to the end of the previous comment.