It’s Time to Revisit “Chocolate Rain”
If you haven’t given much thought to Thay Zondey’s song “Chocolate Rain” since it became a meme in 2007, it’s time to upload the video to YouTube and listen to the lyrics very carefully.
Here is just an excerpt from what Zondey actually sings:
Chocolate rain
School textbooks say it can’t be here again
Chocolate rain
Prisons make you wonder where he went
Chocolate rain
Build a tent and tell the world is dry
Chocolate rain
Zoom out the camera and see the lie
If you’ve never paid attention to Chocolate Rain before, you are not alone. Many have likely encountered him throughvarious parody videos or a sneaky South Park episode. (Even when the song was referenced in the much kinder sitcom The Good Place , it was used as a joke .) Twitter and Reddit users yesterday began sharing reports that hackers used the song to block Chicago police scanners, and more. people learned – for the first time – what Chocolate Rain is really about: systemic racism .
Of course, many people were already well aware of what Sondey sings and why he sings it. But as Zondey, who was born in Minneapolis, told Vice in 2016, one of the reasons Chocolate Rain works like a song is because new listeners are constantly making this discovery:
We live in a society with an epidemic of declarativeness and poverty of questions, and I think part of the enduring appeal of Chocolate Rain is that this question can perhaps be resolved as an interrogative one. What does Chocolate Rain mean? Some people conclude that it could be a political message or a message about social justice or power, and I would say that there are people who would not like to receive polemic messages on these topics, but if they can be delivered from elsewhere, to have an interrogative question to an interrogative state, asking “what is the point of chocolate rain” I think this is a fantastic result.
So it’s time to listen to Chocolate Rain again, especially if you haven’t heard it since 2007. And when you’re done, you might want to listen to the 10th anniversary version . Beyond the memes, it’s worth listening to his message.