Mini-Lyrical Dissection: T.I. and Chris Brown, Get Back Up

December 17, 2010Edward Bowsercelebrity dish, Lyrical Dissection, music0

I’ve gotten a few requests to review T.I.’s new album, No Mercy. Sorry to disappoint our loyal readers, but it ain’t happening. Your boy has been furiously scrambling to get things in order before Christmas arrives, which leaves little time to review albums of people I dislike.

But while in the gym this week, I saw T.I.’s video for “Get Back Up” and I just HAD to comment.

The song features fellow hoodlum Chris Brown. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on Georgia Mae (it’s not something you’d want to admit publicly) but Chris Brown is apparently my cousin. Sorta. His aunt married into my family recently.

Ugh, why couldn’t this guy be my cousin?

Or him?

Or him???

That’s a real hero for ya.

Anyway, I digress. So Cousin Chris and Clifford, the Little Red Rapper, teamed up for “Get Back Up,” in which they seek redemption for being sorry human beings. I don’t have time to do a full-blown Lyrical Dissection, but check out these bars from T.I.:

Yeah he go to work, never done no drugs or to be fair

He just drink his liquor, touch his kids, beat his wife instead

Difference is, my shortcomings hit the media

Thanks to TMZ, the AJC and Wikipedia

See the stairway to heaven while stepping down Jacob’s ladder

My good outweigh the bad, God, aint that what really matters, nope

A matter of fact I’m wrong but after that the good I’ve done in your hood

Should it overshadow that?

Got the world laughing at me for the moment

But it gonna be your turn ‘fore it’s over with

Even if you so legit that you get a house with a dog and a picket fence

The people with you then but when they turn on you remember this

Those lines set me off. Word to Cleo.

So T.I. is saying “yeah, I did drugs – but you’re worse off than me because you molest your kids and beat your wife!?”

Actually, I don’t do either, so you’re still worse than me, T.I.

And before someone (probably Tiny) sends me a threatening e-mail, yes I know T.I. is going for a “he who casts the first stone…” reference. But this is wrong and insulting. No one is saying that T.I. should be without fault. We all make mistakes. T.I.’s problem is that he keeps making the same faults over and over (and over) again. And in this song he’s just passing the blame instead of taking responsibility.

What really fires me up is when he plays the role model card, like when he mentions “all the good I’ve done in your hood.” Constantly getting locked up for the stupidest of offenses, hoping for a break in the case, then crying the blues when faced with hard time does NOT set a good example in the hood. It just shows that it’s OK to break the law – just be sure to get a good lawyer.

It’s no secret that I’ve been hard on Cousin Chris Brown, but I do respect that he has said “I made a huge mistake, I’ll do my best to move on” and has kept his nose clean. I don’t recall him saying “But y’all beat your girlfriends too!” and then beat his girlfriend again.

T.I., like all of us, deserves a clean slate. But it’s awfully hard to give him one when he keeps talking like a complete idiot.

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