The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Sometimes I want to leave
Sometimes I want to cry
Sometimes I hate to bear the truth
Sometimes I want to lie
Sometimes I want to school the youth
Sometimes I want to ride
Sometimes I want to not think
Sometimes I want to vibe
Sometimes I want to bump Tribe and zone out
This song's 'bout a young boy
That's gone wild inside
When my world collide
With your world where your girl
And your kids reside
We killed the facades, we feel free to fly
We're birds that reserve in
The charismatic sky
I care about my pride too much
If my clothes is new, if my ride is plush
If my hair is cut, if my diamonds is crushed
I look in the mirror
I'm trendy enough? Wrong
Insecurity roams the black community
Homes where kids must have jewelry
The high school female need
Earrings and details
So she can be cool to be, amongst popularity
The various name brands that
Reached the price scan
It's not about the right price but
More like the right scam
To rule us all, confuse us all
Hit the bank within five
Minutes and then withdraw now let's draw
The picture of a rapper with a chain
And Range that is not paid for
My cousin from the South said he
Just bought him a house
That lives around his neck
Like a white collar
So why fast forward? then I'll rewind
A time machine can help me
Double back to slavery times
Picking cotton from a field that
A white man own the blacker you are
Farther you're from the white man's home
Negro spiritual songs
Gave us some type of sanity
Before your vanity, they parted our families
They put us in hundred degree
Shade and outside we bathed
The more we were afraid
The more they made rules
And trapped our minds in a cage
Our freedom was so vague
Couldn't see it with the eyes of Tracee Ross
(uh) and school was exempt
See we couldn't have smarts
And a smirk could get you hurt
Wounded first from a scar
400 years of nothing, 400 years of suffering
400 years of tears, and tribulations
Miseducation see what we facing is now
Coming back to the roots
Remember whips on our back and if
We would run they would shoot
Called us niggers and figured that
We never live in pursuit of happiness
We capture these feelings in
Things that we do
Thought of abstinence of slavery but
We made it come to about a perspective
My shoe selection gotta be Louie
Her hand bag gotta be Gucci
It's fake then she fool me
She still bad though
And her fake Gucci ain't that bad though
We filling up the gas for Rollies
Upgrade to 26's after riding Kobes
My cousin from the South
Slavery start in the South and I bet ya
He overcompensates for the life
Of his ancestors
So blame it on the 400 years we never saw
The reason why the next 400 we gotta floss
Slaves
I said the 400 years we never had nothing
Barely had clothes on our back
Is the reason why when we get
A little bit of change
We over exaggerate on our living expenses
So if you get your first big check and you
Cop a chain before you buy a house
You're a vanity slave
If you're a female and you got 4, 5
6 rings on your finger
Four holes in your left ear
And a nose piercing you're a vanity slave
If you got an 02' Monte Carlo with 24's on it
And on the back of the window it says
"Get on my level ho" you're a vanity slave
We're all vanity slaves
And with that being said
Can somebody please tell me
Where the mall at?
I'm not from around here, hey Ali
Where we at? Idaho?
Yeah nigga, you know the first of the month
Checks coming in i'm tryna get some
What up?
Sometimes I want to cry
Sometimes I hate to bear the truth
Sometimes I want to lie
Sometimes I want to school the youth
Sometimes I want to ride
Sometimes I want to not think
Sometimes I want to vibe
Sometimes I want to bump Tribe and zone out
This song's 'bout a young boy
That's gone wild inside
When my world collide
With your world where your girl
And your kids reside
We killed the facades, we feel free to fly
We're birds that reserve in
The charismatic sky
I care about my pride too much
If my clothes is new, if my ride is plush
If my hair is cut, if my diamonds is crushed
I look in the mirror
I'm trendy enough? Wrong
Insecurity roams the black community
Homes where kids must have jewelry
The high school female need
Earrings and details
So she can be cool to be, amongst popularity
The various name brands that
Reached the price scan
It's not about the right price but
More like the right scam
To rule us all, confuse us all
Hit the bank within five
Minutes and then withdraw now let's draw
The picture of a rapper with a chain
And Range that is not paid for
My cousin from the South said he
Just bought him a house
That lives around his neck
Like a white collar
So why fast forward? then I'll rewind
A time machine can help me
Double back to slavery times
Picking cotton from a field that
A white man own the blacker you are
Farther you're from the white man's home
Negro spiritual songs
Gave us some type of sanity
Before your vanity, they parted our families
They put us in hundred degree
Shade and outside we bathed
The more we were afraid
The more they made rules
And trapped our minds in a cage
Our freedom was so vague
Couldn't see it with the eyes of Tracee Ross
(uh) and school was exempt
See we couldn't have smarts
And a smirk could get you hurt
Wounded first from a scar
400 years of nothing, 400 years of suffering
400 years of tears, and tribulations
Miseducation see what we facing is now
Coming back to the roots
Remember whips on our back and if
We would run they would shoot
Called us niggers and figured that
We never live in pursuit of happiness
We capture these feelings in
Things that we do
Thought of abstinence of slavery but
We made it come to about a perspective
My shoe selection gotta be Louie
Her hand bag gotta be Gucci
It's fake then she fool me
She still bad though
And her fake Gucci ain't that bad though
We filling up the gas for Rollies
Upgrade to 26's after riding Kobes
My cousin from the South
Slavery start in the South and I bet ya
He overcompensates for the life
Of his ancestors
So blame it on the 400 years we never saw
The reason why the next 400 we gotta floss
Slaves
I said the 400 years we never had nothing
Barely had clothes on our back
Is the reason why when we get
A little bit of change
We over exaggerate on our living expenses
So if you get your first big check and you
Cop a chain before you buy a house
You're a vanity slave
If you're a female and you got 4, 5
6 rings on your finger
Four holes in your left ear
And a nose piercing you're a vanity slave
If you got an 02' Monte Carlo with 24's on it
And on the back of the window it says
"Get on my level ho" you're a vanity slave
We're all vanity slaves
And with that being said
Can somebody please tell me
Where the mall at?
I'm not from around here, hey Ali
Where we at? Idaho?
Yeah nigga, you know the first of the month
Checks coming in i'm tryna get some
What up?
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Vanity Slaves Lyrics as written by Kendrick Lamar Mark Spears
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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