Brooklyn Baby Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Barracuda 

Cover art for Brooklyn Baby lyrics by Lana Del Rey

This song overall, in my opinion, is poking fun of/satirizing stereotypical Brooklyn hipsters. This isn't a problem for me, considering that I am not a Brooklyn hipster, or a hipster in general, and it's really not offensive or malicious in it's tone. Some might take offense, but the way I see it, they don't really see that this song is firmly tongue in cheek.

"They say I'm too young to love you they say I don't know what I need They think I don't understand the freedom land of the seventies"

This set of lyrics could be seen is two ways.

  1. She's in love with an older man who thinks she's too young and naive
  2. She says she likes a '70's artist and the people from that time tell her that she doesn't understand the music or what that time was like Personally, I think it's the latter, considering the context of the song.

Also, lyrics like: "I sing Lou Reed" "My jazz collections rad" "I get down to beat poetry" "I get high on hydroponic weed" "I'm a Brooklyn Baby" Really drive the point home, to me, that she's singing about being a Brooklyn hipster.

My Interpretation

100% agree. I was thinking this exact same thing- it sounds super mock-y to me. Pretty much every single lyric in the song points to it. And I would even go as far as saying it's making fun of hipsters in general- it's just that Brooklyn is so much of "the place to be" as a hipster so it seems.