Obviously, ‘Chocolate’ by The 1975 is about a bunch of feisty friends and marijuana. They’re running from the cops.
However, I believe that the song also contains loose references to the ‘Rebecca Riots’ that took place in South and Mid Wales between 1839 and 1843 as an uprising against the poverty and oppressive taxation imposed on Welsh rural folk at that time. The male rioters dressed in their womenfolk’s clothes, and quoted the bible; Genesis 24:60, which concerns the biblical figure Rebecca and her children. The lines, “With guns hidden under our petticoats…” and “Said Rebecca ought to know…” seem to indicate a connection. I would be interested if any of the band members would like to confirm or deny the link. More about the Rebecca Riots can be found on Wikipedia.
You are correct. Most other people here are wrong. Chocolate is slang for heroin and no other drug where I am from and where the 1975 grew up. Guns is slang for syringe. The lyrics at the beginning, “call it a split because I know that you will” a split is when two heroin users split the bag evenly, the lyrics follow on to say “you bite your friends like chocolate” meaning the so called split isn’t actually a split, the person is taking more than half and is so addicted to heroin he is screwing over his friend.
I am a heroin addict (clean now) and this is exactly what happens… my friend and I used to use in my car, we would buy a bag between us and my friend being the more addicted person between would always take more than half and call it a split. It gets to a point that isn’t even worth arguing over so you just let them because you feel bad for them. We called syringes guns and Heroin chocolate because it smells like chocolate when smoked… We have also had multiple run-ins with “boys in blue” and we have often been in car chases and thankfully never actually caught.
The song is undoubtedly about heroin addiction and the perils of using heroin
I found a site that suggests that it is a criticism of the international commercial situation affecting Cadbury’s chocolate in N. America, where it must be manufactured by Hershey’s under a complex OEM agreement.
The “feds” are the US government, who put the laws in place that allowed for this situation in the first place-- anyone who has had UK Cadbury’s knows the stuff in the US is not authentic.
“Rebecca” is the real name of a member of the EU who was a key figure in forcing Cadbury to switch from Imperial standards to metric. This has affected the taste.
“Guns under our petticoats” is just a way of referring to the US that gets in a little dig at the country from the UK perspective.
In spite of the distressing situation, the songwriter is not giving up on the great chocolatier-- “Never gonna quit it.”