Destiny's Child - Soldier

Cafe Society
1

Here are the lyrics to the new Destiny’s Child single, Soldier.

I’m not too street, so let me know if my interpretation is correct.

Basically, you need to be a scarred up, tattoed gangbanger, carrying a gun and dealing drugs, with a bunch of gold teeth, and driving a Cadillac (Escalade, presumably), if you want to have a chance of getting romantic with any of the ladies from Destiny’s Child?

Just checking – I was hoping that the glorification of the gangbanger was on its way out, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe the next generation after this one. Oh well.

(Also, what does this mean: "Eyes be so low from that chiefin’ "?)

2

MaaAAAAan, please. If a real roughneck thug rolled up to Beyonce or Kelly, them two chicks wouldn’t know whether to scream or shit a brick.

Glorifying gangsters in America has been around at least since dime novels in the old west. Fiction and fact are tw diferent realities.

3

haha. I’m still trying to figure it out…the lyrics…

4

WAG: Chiefin’ is prolly either a form of eyeballing women to let them know you’re the chief, or top dog, someone not to be fucked with, or else or a drug reference: red-eyes from chiefin’ – aka, smoking. Sorta like cheeba.

I’ve heard this around school lately but short of straight up asking someone, I narrowed it down to those two.

5

I was waiting for this thread.

Yeah, bullshit posturing to sell records. If Jay-Z got a little too street and ‘ignant’, Beyonce would be gone.

Regrettably there will be at least one dizzy girl who will take this message to heart. It’s not like Destiny’s Child has a history of uplifting messages.

Now that third girl, she looks like she might swing that way.

PS:Kelly over Beyonce any day

6

The accepted term for street thug is “soldier” now?

That’s pretty insulting.

7

And, of course, the last single off that album was them mocking a guy because he wasn’t good enough in bed. Again, a very positive song. :slight_smile:

8

West Coast gangbangers have referred to themselves as soldiers for close to twenty years now.

Given the ordinance some these fools carry, it’s more accurate than insulting.

9

I’ve heard people refer to a cigarette as a “chief”…don’t know if it also applies to other smokables.

I guess this is just one more reason to laugh at Destiny’s Child. And Beyonce isn’t that good-looking.

10

“Eyes low from chiefin’”. Must be the ganja. Makes sense: who’d want to go out with a guy that wasn’t stoned?

11

Yep. I’ve heard it comes from the image of native American chiefs smoking a peace pipe.

12

This song is super catchy, immaculately produced, with terrific performances from the singers and the rappers.

That said, the lyrical content is incredibly immature. The message in the song is terrible, championing all of the worst and most self-destructive behaviors that account for most the troubles that African-Americans face today.

13

What I can’t figure out is why MTV censors the “carry big things, if you know what I mean” line from the chorus. I mean, plenty of songs have much more obvious double entendres… What’s the point?

14

I thought the rappers sucked. Especially, that Krunk guy. I’ve got better flow than him, and I don’t rap.

15

And Michelle, the third one, over both of them.

16

The point of the thread was that it’s bad for them to glorify criminals in their song. You just ruined it by making it a race thing. Thank you.

17

I like the song, but the video sucks big time. It looks like a bizarro world GAP ad sprinkled with rap video cliches, and Destiny’s Child just looks bored the whole time.

Plus, the rapper who does the solo toward the end of the song makes Gollum look attractive.

18

pizzabrat. Actually you ruined the thread when you chastised someone for bringing up race in a thread about African-American performers glorifying African-American criminals in a musical genre dominated by blacks and concerning a song loaded with African-American slang. How do you get your high horse to spew out all that bullshit?

ThaaaAAaaaank you. That felt better.

19

Well, everyone else in the thread seemed to be able to tiptoe around all of what you just said without blatantly stating the racial aspect outright.

Seriously, though, thermalribbon’s comment changed the tone from a communitarian “this is bad” to an accusatory “that is bad…for them”.

20

i.e.

“as if they’re not already f’ed up enough already.”
:rolleyes: