George Watsky (Wikipedia, Youtube) is an American poet and rapper from San Francisco, California. Above he raps over the top of the Australian band Foster The People's massive 2011 hit, Pumped Up Kicks.
The original song revolves around the chorus
All the other kids with the pumped up kicksvoicing the pain of a bullied, poor kid in the schoolyard who finally flips. I find the original to have a catchy tune, but becomes ultimately hollow due to the overused riff and repetitive lyrics.
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
Watsky's clinical, smoothly recited verses give this song true legs. Lines like "you're Cedric Diggory. I'm Nicholas Nickleby" (a contrast between the popular school yard pretty-boy character from the Harry Potter novels and the ongoing hardships suffered by the Charles Dickens' 1838 teen character) and "but I got street val for my Pokemon cards" capture the theme of Foster The People's original but with some actual substance. He also proposes actually handling school yard hardship assertively with the phrases "running from a bully, man I'm thinking hell no", "chain me to a tree, I'm waiting for the bulldozer", and "may not be bigger but you're never gonna pick on me" rather than being a mopey psycho. Moreover his rap verses break up the repetitive sounds of the underlying song.
Watsky's lyrics might be easier to follow with these students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater lip-syncing. Watsky has many amazing poems and songs, and will feature in more depth in later posts.
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