Everlast – What Its Like

The song I chose is called “What its like” by Everlast. The piece was written by Erik Schrody, an Irish-American singer/rapper born on August 18, 1969. The first time I listed to this song, it really grabbed my attention. The song tells about circumstantial extremities in life and how people react to them. It first tells of a bum, begging for money at a liquor store. The song tells of this man begging for money with shame in his eyes, suggesting how hard it is for him to do. Maybe if there was any other way, he would have avoided the situation.

Second, it tells of an adolescent teenage girl that becomes pregnant in a relationship she thought would last forever. It ends up that the young man stops talking to her and abandons her completely. She is left to make a choice and decided to get an abortion. The people give her “static” as she comes through the door at the clinic, there was tension in the decision that she made, people degraded her by calling her horrible things for the decision that she makes. How could they know her pain? Can they judge her? The last character is Max. Max has problems with drugs and alcohol and seems to have violent friends as well.

Max is the one I felt most like judging because he hangs out with drug dealers and gets smashed drunk all the time and thus wise neglects his responsibilities as a dad and a husband. He ends up losing his temper one night and gets in a gun brawl and gets shot and dies. His problems are then left for his grief stricken family to deal with. The song touches heavily on not judging someone until you are fully aware of their circumstances. In my opinion, the single best line in the song is, “god forbid you ever had to walk a mile in their shoes, then you might know what it’s like to have to choose.

The song is written in a type of blues, hip-hop soft rock. It’s really a unique style that Everlast created after having been involved so much in so many different kinds of music. There are only two guitars and a drum set used in this song. It is interesting to note that a majority of the song is played D Minor, which is said to be the single saddest note in the musical spectrum. (see wikipidia: D Minor) There have yet to be any remakes of the song. The song is still played on the radio today and seems to attract attention where ever it is played.