Gangster's Paradise

Cafe Society
1

inspired by the Weird Al topic but that’s not important

here is how I hear the lyrics

“tell me why are we so blind to see, that the ones we hurt are you and me”

The word should be “too”. That is the onlyu English word that makes sense, even in slang. So what is going on? Am I hearing it wrong, or is it a blatant grammaticall error? The syllables would be the same, so why change it?

This has been bugging me for a long time. Usually I accept bad grammar in songs, but I see no reason for this to be this way

2

Bad grammar in a rap song? I’m shaken to the core. Surely this is unprecedented?

3

It’s not that it is bad grammar, but it is a form of bad grammar which I have never heard. If someone split an infinitive in a rap song, I wouldn’t blink an eye, because it follows the way people talk. But I have never heard this particular use of “so” even in the most casual and slangy of conversations

4

Regardless of whether it’s bad grammar, it’s easily understandable, at least to me. The sentence “Tell me why are we so blind to see, that the ones we hurt are you and me?” means the same thing as “Tell me why are we so blind that we fail to see that the ones we hurt are you and me.” I have no problem with understanding the sentence “Tell me why are we so blind to see, that the ones we hurt are you and me?”

5

“blind to seeing” would work. I actually think that’s more like what he was going for, since the ‘so’ is obvious, and confusion of gerunds and verbs is pretty common.

on edit
Which is essentially the meaning Wendell Wagner gives. I don’t have a problem reading it as is either.

6

Yeah, because rap is the only form of music that mutilates grammar.

7

But I don’t understand why. “to see” and “so see” are no diffrent in number of syllables, so it can’t be for rhythm

8

“Why are we so blind?” is correct if it stands on its own. The mistake is understandable from that point of view.

9

This reminds my of a neat turn of phrase in the Outkast song “Pink and Blue”:

You’re sophisticated / Just me and miss lady / You’ve got me talkin like a baby

But the way it’s sung it sounds like:
You’re so “phistocated”…

It tickles me every time I hear it.

10

I always liked the phrase in Destiny Child’s “Bills Bills Bills”

Do you pay my bills, do you pay my automobiles do you pay my telephone bills?

that’s clever
but for some reason the one in the OP always bugs me

11

We’re not blind in everything: We can still tell red from blue, we can count how many fingers someone’s holding up, and so on. We’re only blind to see some things. And some things, we’re really, really badly blind to see. Why are we so blind to see how much we’re hurting each other?

It’s perfectly grammatical, and he’s saying exactly what he intends to say, but what he intends to say is ever so subtly different from what you were expecting him to say.