Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday (2007)
Chocolate Rain is a song released in 2007 and quickly became popular after the MV was uploaded to YouTube on April 22, 2007. The song was performed by American singer Tay Zonday, which ranked as the hottest viral video by CTV and awarded the YouTube Award in the category Music in 2008. Main topic is a metaphor for racism of African-Americans in the United States, the title “chocolate rain” refers to the blood of black people. The song’s lyrics "The school books say it can't be here again/The prisons make you wonder where it went", and "Build a tent and say the world is dry/Zoom the camera out and see the lie" points out as the existence of people who live in ignorance of the institutional racism issue in the United States.
Key Lyrics
Chocolate Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Chocolate Rain
A baby born will die before the sin
Chocolate Rain
The school books say it can't be here again
Chocolate Rain
The prisons make you wonder where it went
Chocolate Rain
Build a tent and say the world is dry
Chocolate Rain
Zoom the camera out and see the lie
Chocolate Rain
Forecast to be falling yesterday
Chocolate Rain
"Only in the past" is what they say
Chocolate Rain
Raised your neighborhood insurance rates
Chocolate Rain
Makes us happy living in a gate
Chocolate Rain
Made me cross the street the other day
Chocolate Rain
Made you turn your head the other way [1]
Black Empowerment
Zonday’s Chocolate Rain is about systemic racism, as people love in a society with poverty of interrogatives, the song implicitly have either political message or social justice or power. [2]
In a prelude, Zonday connects to the moment in American Reconstruction Era, he asserted: “Chocolate Rain” is a song that has a lot to do with history, and Phish covered it, and they also have a song called “Ass Handed” which, I presume, has a lot to do about history because some Americans were at one point promised 40 acres and a mule and that never exactly happened. So clearly, this song speaks to that historical moment. How does it go? [3]
References
- ↑ Chocolate Rain Tay Zonday. genius.com. Retrieved January 26, 2021
- ↑ Dieker, Nicole. It's Time to Reconsider 'Chocolate Rain'. January 6, 2020. lifehacker.com. Retrieved January 26, 2021
- ↑ Broerman, Michael. “Chocolate Rain” Singer Tay Zonday Covers “Ass Handed” By Phish In Cameo Video [Watch]. April 20, 2020. liveforlivemusic.com. Retrieved January 26, 2021