- Aug 27, 2008
"The Wacky World of Rapid Transit" - By Del the Funkee Homosapien
This song does a really excellent job of explaining the real
reason why it is I ended up being a bicycle riding kind of guy.
I learned to fix bikes because if I didn't fix the problem, the story line of this song was my fate.
Chances are, unless you happen to be a black male who grew up in a poor part of the east bay who never got involved with the "thug" mentality, you won't particularly sympathize with the protagonist's lyrics.
Suffice it to say this is not merely a bus ride into a fanciful hypothetical for the sake of an amusing story line. It is quite an accurate description of travel via AC Transit in certain neighborhoods, from the inexplicably long delays to the fun characters on the bus.
I particularly like skit 2: "A-yo, you Rosa Parks' son motherfucker? Bring your ass back here..."
I learned to fix bikes because if I didn't fix the problem, the story line of this song was my fate.
Chances are, unless you happen to be a black male who grew up in a poor part of the east bay who never got involved with the "thug" mentality, you won't particularly sympathize with the protagonist's lyrics.
Suffice it to say this is not merely a bus ride into a fanciful hypothetical for the sake of an amusing story line. It is quite an accurate description of travel via AC Transit in certain neighborhoods, from the inexplicably long delays to the fun characters on the bus.
I particularly like skit 2: "A-yo, you Rosa Parks' son motherfucker? Bring your ass back here..."
Im not black, nor from the east bay, but I grew up poor. Ive been riding the bus all around the city since I was 11.
ReplyDeletealthough, ethnically, I present as white, Im actually "white trash". Or, a "w word". Rap is the music of my people, and I would appreciate it if you would be more inclusive to those who look different from yourself, instead of gate keeping the universality of a damn good song
I never knew DEL personally, but I discovered his music when I was 13, and it deeply resonated with me. Not only are his instrumentals cut-throat, and rhythmic, (classic boom-bap we all know and love!), but the lyrical content of his songs are where I fell in love.
Del makes songs that aren't about the same 4 things. And Im not just talking rap songs, Im talking like every song with lyrics
anyways, idk if you'll read this, but thanks if you did
signed: A fellow flamboyant introvert :)
Alright, totally fair enough.
DeleteI spent a lot of time in trailer parks (me and my (now) ex, who was Asian, used to refer to ourselves as "colored trash ;-P)
I spent a summer with a traveling carnival in the mid-west, and noted that there was a culture of finding fist fights socially acceptable, a legitimate way to deal with disputes, which was both appalling and familiar.
So, I know its really more a poverty and separate from mainstream society sub-culture thing. I guess its just that this particular song is specifically based in Oakland CA, he's talking about the buses of A/C transit, the very ones I grew up riding, and here the people who get into fist fights on a public bus very disproportionately look like myself.
Anyway, thanks for commenting, this blog hasn't been active for years, glad to see people still occasionally stumble across it.