Superstar

Perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye.

I feel very confident that the majority of this song is based upon a prisoner's experience at San Quentin and in particular the part that has to do with an execution really had to do with an execution and not a metaphor for his fame or stardom. I think that he actually tried to use this story about prison life and the experience going through death row as a way to give prisoners at San Quentin a voice and him a way to do something good for his conscience and to keep him humble along with breaking into the scene with a really well armored song with a discrete message about the not so glamorous side of human nature.

*I actually don't have an opinion on the subject except how the ha ha ha... Gives me the creeps. But if anyone feels like saying I'm crazy for defending murderers. I would say I don't have an opinion about that. I am not involved. I was just taking a criminology class, which I ended up getting a C in. So I was not that good.

And you better wear your shades The spotlights here can burn holes through the stage. Has to do with a prison yard spotlight I think with a riffle sharp shooter Down through the basement Passed the Indian graves. That is a San Quentin giveaway. Where the dinosaurs laid And out through china. Bart tunnel Across the bay is China town Nearly misses air liners. Sfo/ Candlestick Park Magnified times five. the Giants This is pointed at the rhymer. Bay view hunters point Riffle Ricochets off the moon and sets the forest a blaze. Hunters moon?
Now that's important to say Cause even with all of that Most of us don't want it to fade. We want it to braid Meaning we want it to grow. Like if we want the prison industry to grow Meaning we want it to stay. Prison to stay Like the governor called And they told him to wait. Told the executioner to wait Un-strap him from the chair And put him back in his cage. Back to his cell The audience ain't fazed. The execution audience in one of the three sections And they ain't gone clap and they ain't gone praise They want everything back that they paid. They aren't satisfied with the call to delay the execution. Cause they been waiting since ten to see the lights get dim. Waiting for two hours because they perform them at midnight.

you are what you say you are A super star Then have no fear the camera's here and the microphone and they wanna know Oh oh oh oh. It's a sarcastic and different take on the microphone being used for recording the death. And how the Camara is also used to document the last breath and the whole process. And what the last words sounds are .... Because? They want to know. So gross.

So chauffeur chauffeur come and take me away Cause I been standing in this line For like five whole days Me and security ain't getting along And when I got to the front they told me all of the tickets were gone So just take me home where the mood is mellow. Mellow yellow instead of orange. And the roses are thrown. As opposed to being men that are used as prostitutes? M&M's are yellow. As opposed to them being white inmates that can rap and are either associated with red or blue And the light bulbs around my mirror don't flicker. Because it's not a prison cell with those type of lights. Everybody gets a nice autograph picture. Instead of only one persons mugshot One for you and one for your sister Who had to work tonight but is an avid listener Every songs a favorite song And mikes don't feed back. That's about prison prostitution All the reviewers say you need to go and see that And everybody claps cause everybody is pleased Then they all take the stage and start performing for me Like ha ha ha ha ha. That's the dead giveaway that it was about the execution. And possibly the prostitution situation or both.

I toured San Quentin with my class and the executioner talked about the process and why they put a microphone and Camara inside the death chamber and how the whole process is carefully examined to make sure it's humane and the sounds are all fairly standard. Then he repeated that. I remember that from 2002. When this song came out later I remember thinking that there was a subliminal message there. And then I got that after listening a few times.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

That part still gives me the creeps.

If you are what you say you are A super star

People could say all they want that it's about being famous and probably it's that too. That is the genius part of that song which I think really makes him stand out as an artist and a ironically, silent activist. Shedding light into a dark place. Perhaps not just the institution but the place within ourselves.