about
"Participation Trophies" appears on Chuckie Campbell's EP, Curious Incidents in Cancel Culture. In the era of entitlement and participation trophies, regardless of individual effort or superior skills, all who participate receive equal acknowledgement, creating an atmosphere where no proper metric can be applied to measure almost anything. And so it goes, the erosion of all cultural standards, until there is nowhere left to stand. Facts are countered by alt-facts. News is countered with Fake News. True depth is countered by the Fake Deep. Presidents are not leaders; they are celebrities. The rules no longer apply, not even to James Harden's patented step-back three-pointer. While all means of fairness and justice seems to escape us, only the most horrific of incidents can call us back to consciousness, show us that all lives cannot matter unless black lives matter, too, that our common humanity is caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. The incidents have a curious and inter-related nature, for unless all men are free, no men are free, and where ironically, we find we are most free when we exercise restraint, patience, and kindness toward our fellow man.
lyrics
Verse 1
This is not art
These are shapeless shapes
A feeling in my heart,
I could never erase
My inner-child I seduced,
carved out with a blade,
sacrificed to the false gods
of fake outrage,
but all you want is a hot take,
headline, soundbite,
something for click bait,
dark web, deep state,
bitcoin blockchain,
CIA phone tap, IOS update
Nah, giant steps like Coltrain
Harden with the step back
from three-point range
Travel...
more than the norm
I emerge from the snow
with a section of horns
Tour...
bear with and bask in,
the bars and the bapkins
and Maravich backspin
back when the bandwagon
meant more than bandwidth,
the band packed bags
in the back of the van with
kind of backpack
boom bap backspins
B-boy backflips on cardboard canvas
I blackout, backtrack,
time moves backward
An abstract flashback circa nostalgia
Blackball red snapbacks and MAGA
Global pandemics cancel march madness
Mumble rap, fidget spinners, Apps and onesies
Every rapper in the game want participation trophies
Verse 2
On America’s Next
Celebrity Sex Predator,
President-elect turns
primetime competitor
when boss of The Apprentice
dismisses all fact-checkers
and heckles the free press
to new and disturbing levels...
Grab’em by the pussy!
Beta males spike drinks,
date rape, bully, and roofie
all Eyes Wide Shut
streaming Pornhub movies
Jeff Epstein suicide
with makeshift nooses...
Dark but not that deep
Spring break quarantine
on a Florida beach
Soaking up sunbeams
and some Covid-19,
praying to the gods
of almighty 5G...
Woke
Cup half empty
Black-White Supremacy,
blind as Clayton Bigsby
walking through the sunken place
unable to distinguish,
an angry flat-earther
from the rapper Slim Jesus
Social engineering consensus
Tumbler, Tick Tok, Twitter, and Tinder
Share, swipe right, like, comment, and censor
Dopamine addict, social media bender
As long as you can keep
the appropriate social distance,
right about now’s
the perfect time to be offended:
Alt-facts podcasts, haters and homies,
when every rapper in the game
want participation trophies
Verse 3
Just when things felt
like they might make sense,
an anchor on the news
pronounced Lakers with an N,
as Kobe Bryant dies
in some terrifying twist
in a helicopter crash
on the way to the gym...
Tears
The Universe bends
uniquely toward justice,
whatever that is,
when police point pistols
at innocent black kids,
pull the trigger,
blow they head off
and never see prison...
Listen
Witnesses align, protest, testify,
even live-stream the officer
on facebook live,
Yet the case is dismissed
and can never be tried:
Acquitted all charges;
committed no crime
The kind of real pain
that you just can’t hide
Choked up, doubled over,
liquor hits the stomach
nursing an ulcer,
Curious the incidents In Cancel Culture
credits
from
Curious Incidents in Cancel Culture,
released July 15, 2020
All songs written and performed by Chuckie Campbell for Sunsets and Silencers Music, Buffalo, NY.
Scratches and cuts on "Participation Trophies" done by DJ Optimus Prime out of Buffalo, NY.
Produced, and mixed at True Blue Recording by Willie Breeding in Nashville, TN.
Mastering by Paul Redel in Los Angeles, CA.
license
all rights reserved
