The Home of Lyricism

I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news but the next post involves a song that is extremely depressing to some of those who have heard it. The title of the song is Dance with the Devil. It is written and performed by Immortal Technique and underground and very talented hip-hop artist from Harlem, New York.

Much like my last post which featured Juelz Santana’s Lil' Boy Fresh, this track tells an even more complicated story. Here is the opening few verses of the song that immortal technique uses to set the stage for the listener:

I once knew a nigga whose real name was William/
his primary concern, was making a million/
being the illest hustler, that the world ever seen/
he used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams/
a corrupted young mind, at the age of thirteen/
nigga never had a father and his mom was a fiend/
she put the pipe down, but for every year she was sober/
her sons heart simultaneously grew colder/
he started hanging out selling bags in the projects/
checking the young chicks, looking for hit and run prospects/

The instrumental is simple as it only has kicks, some bass, and the piano. The simplicity of this beat adds to the dark and ominous feeling that the lyrics give off. The character in the song is young and as is shown in the song is easily persuaded into leading a life of crime despite his mother cleaning her life up and working hard to keep food on her sons plate.

After the first verse is over Immortal Technique has one of the best hooks I have heard on a song.

Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences/
you probably only did a month for minor offences/
ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance/
but then again there's always the wicked that knew in advance/
dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block/
but that’s what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock/
devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top/
there's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot/

Throughout the entire song you can tell that as the actions of the main character continue to get worse and worse that something terrible was going to end up happening at the end of the song.

And boy, is that exactly what happens in the end. Here are the last few bars in the song:

cocked the gat to her head, and pulled back the shirt cover/
but what he saw made him start to cringe and stutter/
'cause he was staring into the eyes of his own mother/
she looked back at him and cried, cause he had forsaken her/
she cried more painfully, than when they were raping her/
his whole world stopped, he couldn't even contemplate/
his corruption had successfully changed his fate/
and he remembered how his mom used to come home late/
working hard for nothing, cause now what was he worth/
he turned away from the woman that had once given him birth/
and crying out to the sky cause he was lonely and scared/
but only the devil responded, cause God wasn't there/
and right then he knew what it was to be empty and cold/
and so he jumped off the roof and died with no soul/

The end is depressing but the entire song builds up to this moment and it is wild to see a lyricist who can do just that with complex rhymes that make you actually feel something by the time the song is over.

So when the devil wants to dance with you, you better say never/
because a dance with the devil might last you forever/