barryorchestra presents...2020: A Playlist - #65.
65. “We’re All Gonna Be Killed” by Terrell Hines
On first listen, this song sounds like a three act play on chaos. On repeat listens...yep, still sounds the same, but it has grown on me immensely. Terrell Hines is an independent artist that popped onto my radar while I was going down a Spotify rabbit hole, and the amount of sarcasm, anxiety, and humor this song spins is quite impressive. The song begins in a blues style, with a simple refrain about trying your best to smile through the anxiety we feel about death. After all, if we haven’t figured anything else out as humans collectively, we mostly positive on the fact that we’re going to die. After about a minute of that, the song speeds up and we get a proper early 2000s Kanye chipmunk soul re-work of the blues track we just heard, that Terrell proceeds to rip a relentless rap flow over. The first verse is him telling the story of a man who tried to save the world but got lost in his own pursuit. I’m curious if this is a metaphor of his own journey as an artist, but it isn’t clearly revealed. The second verse is something of a middle finger to all the rap tropes he sees around him, as well as the political system that is failing the American people.
“I don’t do politics It’s all lawless”
“Sinister leaders that follow scripts Just a head with a body and nothing else”
Just when you think the song is going to end, it doesn’t. It turns into a swing jazz tune at the very end with a final word from Terrell as he reminds us that we may never see each other again due to the social climate, so “fuck bitches, and get money”!
It’s a whiplash of audible satire, and some of it hard to pick up on if you have a hard time catching fast paced rap cadences, but I feel like the rest of us, Terrell doesn’t have all the answers. He’s providing art to vent his frustration. And sometimes, that's all you need to get you to the next day before you die. In 2020, songs like these definitely were that for me.