I Get Out

After reading the few reviews I was able to find on the internet of this particular CD, and any reference to the song, here is what I think.

Lauryn Hill, like all of us, is struggling to find out who she is and why she is here. Those are some of the most deeply-rooted questions that humanity has been seeking to answer for themselves throughout existence. Unfortunately due to the tremendous acclaim her first solo album received, and her hailing of 'bringing Hip-hop into the mainstream', I'm sure that she felt a tremendous amount of pressure to be what everyone wanted her to be. This is a pressure that we all feel, I know that I do, in every social institution and relationship that we are party to. This song, in particular, addresses her questioning if who she has been and if what she has done, is in fact truly her? Has she exercised her free will?

"I Get Out" - Lauryn Hill

[Singing Chorus] I get out, I get out of all your boxes | I get out, you can't hold me in these chains | I'll get out | Father free me from this bondage | Knowin' my condition | Is the reason I must change

The message is clear, she does not think so. She is tackling the major institutions of influence in her life, the music industry, government, racial oppresion, sexism, and bad-religion. In the first chorus, she appeals to God, her faith to free her. She recognizes her mistakes. She is seeking freedom to be herself, as she feels she is to be so. She has faced pressure to be something, and whether or not she agrees, or that it is to her benefit, career-wise, etc.. it is only natural for human beings to be resistant, for above all God instilled in us the need for free will. Even if in the end she is all wrong, she wants to be able to be wrong, but she does not want to be wrong. She wants to exercise her will.

[Verse 1] Your stinkin' resolution | Is no type of solution | Preventin' me from freedom | Maintainin' your polution | I won't support your lie no more | I won't even try no more | If I have to die, oh Lord | That's how I choose to live | I won't be compromised no more | I can't be victimised no more | I just don't sympathize no more | Cuz now I understand | You just wanna use me | You say "love" then abuse me | You never thought you'd loose me | But how quickly we forget | That nothin' is for certain | You thought I'd stay here hurtin' | Your guilt trip's just not workin' | Repressin' me to death | Cuz now I'm choosin' life, yo | I take the sacrifice, yo | If everything must go, then go | That's how I choose to live |

That pollution that she speaks of is the overt influence that others can have on our lives. She no longer wants to stand it. The record industry, as much as many of the people in it might have sympathized with her, she's seen through to their self-interest. It is true, she has benefitted, but she doesn't want to be just a cash cow. Perhaps she is also referring to individual pain and dissappointment she has experienced in a variety of environments, with people expressing their wish to do her well all while doing her harm. It reminds me of the Spanish 'Don' who would be 'godfather' to all his slaves, yet at the same time would be the one to order their beatings if not beat them himself when they wished to be more than slaves. She is equating herself with the history of slavery. Yes she has help HipHop be more accepted, but the acceptance of slaves was accepted not as equal human beings, but as beasts of burden. Before the possibility of their use for profit was found, they did not matter. She also refers to unhealthy human relationships, full of abuse which maybe she, certainly people do, was a part of; ones in which they are unequal, unbalanced, one-way and ultimately parasitical. She no longer wants to accept them, she is choosing to give it all up, fame, the relationships, etc.. so that she may live.

[Pause]

[Singing rest of Verse 1] That's how I choose to live... | Hehehehe, awhh | No more compromises | I see past your diguises | Blindin' through mind control | Stealin' my eternal soul | Appealin' through material | To keep me as your slave |

She reasserts that it is her choice, despite how unwise it might seem, she sees through the veil that is being attempted to put over her eyes. The material prosperity which she has attained through her success is not enough to dictate her life.

[Singing Chorus] But I get out | Oh, I get out of all your boxes | I get out | Oh, you can't hold me in these chains | I'll get out | Oh, I want out of social bondage | Knowin' my condition | Oh, is the reason I must change |

[Singing Verse 2] See, what you see is what you get | Oh, and you ain't seen nothin' yet | Oh, I don't care if you're upset | I could care less if you're upset | See it don't change the truth | And your hurt feeling's no excuse | To keep me in this box | Psychological locks | Repressin' true expression | Cementin' this repression | Promotin' mass deception | So that no one can be healed | I don't respect your system | I won't protect your system | When you talk I don't listen | Oh, let my Father's will be done

She does not want to continue to live in the cycle of pleasing others, for that is no way to live. People often feel hurt and rejected when you don't do things for the whole purpose of appeasing them, when this happens they resort to a diverse set of pressures, name calling, guilt trips, rejection, anger, etc.

[Singing Chorus] And just get out | Oh, just get out of all these bondage | Just get out | Oh, you can't hold me in chains | Just get out | All these traditions killin' freedom | Knowin' my condition | Is the reason I must change |

The traditions that she speaks of could be alluding to the norms that we are often encouraged to adhere to without question. Norms are there for a reason, it is true, and Tradition is a norm with good purpose. The thing is, sometimes norms are enforced in a very hollow manner, without rational merely as extensions of bureaucracy. That is when, in an effort to punish someone for the death of an individual, we assign the death penalty without seeing the context within which the event happened.

[Singing Verse 3] I've just accepted what you said | Keepin' me among the dead | The only way to know | Is to walk then learn and grow | But faith is not your speed | Oh, you've had everyone believed | That you're the sole authority | Just follow the majority | Afraid to face reality | The system is a joke | Oh, you'd be smart to save your soul | Oh, when escape is mind control | You spent your life in sacrifice | To a system for the dead | Oh, are you sure... | Where is the passion in this living | Are you sure it's God you servin' | Obligated to a system | Getting less then you're deserving | Who made up these schools, I say | Who made up these rules, I say | Animal conditioning | Oh, just to keep us as a slave |

She equates blind submission to anything with death. We are not alive because we are perfect, but rather because of the mistakes we make. What life would one really live if they did not learn and overcome through their own mistakes. It is true, sometimes those mistakes have everlasting consequences, but that doesn't mean that those will always be negative. Some of people's deepest convictions are a direct result of pain that they have experienced, but that has motivated them to great heights.

She questions the authority of those systems, it is not perfect, but often times it props-up itself as perfect. When it really believes that, that it is always right, the natural conclusion is that everyone should be submissive to it, in a perfectly utilitarian manner, then any means are deemed right to achieve the 'correct' results, reminiscent of some of humanities greatest tragedies.

She says that the system is a joke, and perhaps this is taking it too far. I don't think the system is a joke, but the perversion of the system which exists is. For example, I'm sure to a certain extent she is critisizing Religious tradition, which in an of itself is not wrong, but rather the human perversion of it. Sin is exactly that, taking something pure and corrupting it. Organized religion is not a sin, but when men make organized religion the goal rather than God that is sin.

[Singing Chorus] Oh, just get out | Of this social purgatory | Just get out | All these traditions are alive | Just get out | Superstition killing freedom | Knowin' my condition | Is the reason I must die | Just get out | Just get out | Just get out | Let's get out | Let's get out | Knowin' my condition | Is the reason I must die | Just get out

She is in a state of limbo, still trying to sort things out. I think we all are. But the key is that she recognizes her fault and therefore that is why she must put those faults to death, in order to live. It is when we accept our faults that we can begin to assess them and have hope.

Here is another article that discusses some of the song, and the overall mood of the CD this song is a part of, although he doesn't address the song too deeply: sojo.net/index.cfm identitytheory.com/music/garrett11.html wordmag.com/REVRANDB.HTM