Written By: Anton Sawyer
A Complete Breakdown Of The Kid Rock Song “We The People”
As much as I don’t like writing two articles about the same person/topic/subject matter so close together, but when you are given such a source as Kid Rock and his “Shakespearean”-level prose, it’s hard to pass up. Yes, it’s only been a couple of weeks since I reviewed the music and thoroughly debunked the lyrics of his track “Don’t Tell Me How To Live,“ but, when I heard he was releasing another gem whose lyrics were so closely related, I had to jump at the chance.
Before we get too far into this mess, I wanted to give you a little blurb of my background when it comes to music, and why I feel empowered to make such assertions when it comes to his art. To skip to the music breakdown, click here. To skip to the lyric breakdown, click here. If you want to read my entire resume, I go through it in the previous debunking article linked above.
In an attempt to maintain complete transparency, all research and statistical fact-checking for all articles can be found in the bibliography linked here.
If you can spare a few bucks to support a starving artist, buy me a coffee!
To support for free, follow me on Twitter
For four years I worked as a music journalist. During my tenure, I reviewed over 100 albums along with the live performances of over 300 bands. The styles of music I reviewed ranged from funk to punk, blues to black metal, classical to country, goth to grindcore, and all points in-between. In total, I had over 250 articles published in publications ranging in size from countywide, to statewide, to nationwide levels. In essence, I’ve forgotten about more music than most people will ever hear in their lives. Taking this experience with me, it’s time to delve into the world of Mr. Rock.
In today’s examination, I’m going to start by reviewing the music itself. Afterward, I’ll look at each section of lyrics to call out any inaccuracies in what he’s saying and provide a factual rebuttal.
The Music—
The song starts with a pretty standard drum fill before moving to the main riff. I will give Rock and his band credit for not stealing another famous drum intro like was done on the track “All Summer Long” when they ripped off the intro from “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Though the main riff isn’t as heavy as the down-tuned flavor of “Don’t Tell Me How To Live,” I do have to admit that it does have a strong groove, and is at the right tempo to get your body moving. Musically, the main riff does carry the same southern rock feeling as “Don’t Tell Me How To Live,” but in this case, it’s much lighter and more melodic. This melody segues well into the chorus fairly well, and from an overall songwriting standpoint, the song hits all the markers that would make it accessible to a large audience. This is also where some of the problems are birthed from.
The music itself isn’t terrible, but it’s nothing that you haven’t heard before by Rock (and in many cases, done better previously). Maybe I’m expecting too much from Rock in a musical sense—he isn’t Baskin Robbins and only has two or three flavors tops. Though I know there’s only so much that can be done in the realm of southern rock-based hip-hop, it would be nice to see him and his band either branch out or use different polyrhythms to give the music itself some room to move around into unique and different territories.
Finally, for someone who wrote “Bawitadaba,” the lack of a heavy breakdown in “We The People” is surprising. Rock knows breakdowns, and in this case, has decided to go in the direction of an old-school funk motif. I’m not sure if he’s trying to stray from that musical image of the late-90s, but a heavy breakdown in the vein of that time period would have added a lot more edge to the anger the lyrics are trying to portray. Oddly enough, this funk-based section is my favorite part of the entire song, even though it’s a complete departure from the whole vibe. Overall, the music by itself isn’t terrible, it’s just lacking in originality and providing a new direction of the genre. Trust me, the lyrics will be remembered long after the music has left the minds of his fans.
The Lyrics—
To keep things clear, the Kid Rock lyrics will be in bold, while my responses will be in italics.
We the people in all we do
Reserve the right to scream "Fuck you"
Again, like his prior single “Don’t Tell Me How To Live,” you get the obligatory “fuck you” to open the song. I will say this about Rock and his lyrical compositions, they are consistent.
"Wear your mask, take your pills"
Now a whole generation's mentally ill
Man, fuck Fauci
This has been sort of the rallying cry for the conservative movement since Covid was first introduced. Sadly, I do understand where the anger from Fauci comes from. His biggest mistake was to overestimate the intelligence of the average American citizen. Anyone who understands how science and viruses work knows that the promises being made by both Biden and Fauci when it came to the vaccines and containment of the Coronavirus were deceptive at best. Given the proliferation of the spreading of the disease, by the time a vaccine was concocted, it was already beginning the mutation process. There was no way that a single vaccine was going to prevent people from going to the ICU or dying from Covid if the strain was new or nasty enough. Fauci knew this and figured that it would be better to lie to the average citizen with platitudes. This, in turn, gave the GOP a ton of ammunition when it came to fighting the vaccine and mandates—and here we are with this lyrical take from Mr. Rock.
But COVID's near, it's coming to town
We gotta act quick, shut our borders down
Joe Biden does, the media embraces
Big Don does it and they call him racist
OK, this is a very convincing conflation for anyone who has no memory at all of the reasoning behind Trump’s closing of the borders or has no memory of the timelines and reasoning for the bans.
First, if Rock is referring to the travel bans brought about by Covid, there were no cries of racism against Trump for that. If anything, Trump was excoriated for waiting so long to close the borders after the revelation that an outbreak had occurred. At the beginning of the pandemic, 45 nations imposed travel restrictions on China before the US did. The earliest of those restrictions went into effect on January 24th, 2020—nine days before the US travel ban went into effect on February 2nd.
With the “racism” comment that Rock is making, I believe he’s referring to the Muslim travel ban (Executive Order 13769). The Muslim travel ban was condemned as being racist since it was targeting a specific religion from specific countries.
Regardless of which border shut-down he’s referring to, being that most of Rock’s fans can’t be bothered to fact-check anything, they are going to agree with this entire section, no questions asked.
[Chorus]:
We the people (ooh, let's go, Brandon)
We the people (ooh, let's go, Brandon)
We the people (ooh, let's go, Brandon)
We the people
With an anti-Biden song, this chorus is to be expected. Any time a catchphrase is born from a group of people who just watched a cavalcade of cars makes a left-hand turn for four hours (NASCAR fans), you’re not going to get anything that’s breathtakingly genius. But, the lyrics cater to the right audience, so that works I guess?
Fuck Facebook, fuck Twitter too
And the mainstream media, fuck you too
Yeah, you
I completely understand the hatred for Twitter since they banned Trump. I’m confused about Facebook given that it was one of the greatest disseminators of false information that helped Trump in both elections.
Inflation's up, like the minimum wage
So it's all the same, it ain't a damn thing changed
You piece of shit, I don't see color
"Black lives matter," no shit motherfucker
If you have looked around and found that McDonald’s and other employers are offering $15 an hour, that’s not the federal minimum wage, but rather a business increasing pay to attract more employees. Per the Department of Labor, between 1999 and 2021, the minimum wage has only been raised three times from $5.85 per hour to $7.25 per hour, only an increase of 23.93%, with the last raise being in 2009. I’m guessing that Rock is relying on the lack of knowledge that his fan base has when it comes to economic realities. I.e., they think “I see Wendy’s hiring at $15 an hour, this means minimum wage was increased.”
Also, “I don’t see color” is a very Baby Boomer/Generation X phrase that is cringey at best and shows how out of touch Rock is with the younger generations. We all see color, it’s whether we acknowledge it or not that shows our character. Nuances like this go over the heads of the average Kid Rock listener, and I’m sure they feel that his inclusion of them somehow makes him more “progressive.”
But we gotta keep fighting for the right to be free
And every human being doesn't have to agree
We all bleed red, brother, listen to me
It's time for love and unity
Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! Really Mr. Rock? Really? After spouting some of the most vitriolic rhymes you can concoct up to this point, you have the audacity to try and spread a message of love and unity?
His lack of self-awareness is shared by those who idolize him, so I’m sure that the inclusion of the line about love and unity makes them feel good about themselves (even though they have absolutely no reason to).
Fuck CNN, fuck TMZ
And you social media trolls, y'all can suck on deez (deez)
Deez nuts, that's what's up
We the people (ha-ha)
I know that Rock and his faithful avoid any history that they don’t like, and this section is a prime example. It’s important to keep in mind that Trump made it clear that both he, and the GOP at large, are the trolls when he told a packed crowd during a 2020 rally in North Carolina, “We like to troll.” This was later personified when, at the same event, local celebrities Diamond and Silk told the crowd that due to Trump helping African Americans so mightily that “Donald Trump is the first black president!”
If you down with love and wanna make things better
All we gotta do is just come together
Weather the storm, and take my hand
Then follow my lead to the promised land
'Cause we the people, we gotta unite
To follow that good time guiding light
Climb aboard this love boat
And rock that bitch up and down the coast
In order to form a more perfect union
Do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America
Standing up, and standing tall
'Cause it's all for one and it's one for all
All, all, all
Again, like the “love and unity” line, this section lacks all self-awareness. If Rock really did make a boat out of his beliefs and tried to spin it as a “love boat,” it would have as much success as the Titanic in completing its mission. To be honest, from this entire song I get the vibe that everything Rock knows about love and unity was learned from the “50 Shades of Grey” series; that you can only know love if you do exactly as you are told with unquestioning devotion. To me, it’s a little “Stockholm”-like, but it seems to work for them.
Final Thoughts—
I understand that music is subjective. I understand that in any song, between the music and lyrics, people can put themselves in another person’s shoes and can perchance glean some kind of knowledge that may not have been present before. When it comes to this song in particular, there is no knowledge to be gained. I can guarantee your worldview will take a spin in the toilet if you were to adopt any of the ideologies presented in “We The People”—except for ACTUAL love and unity.
The only thing that does sit with me long after the song is over is knowing there will be more of these politically charged tunes coming from Rock in the future. I know this not because of his musical/lyrical prowess, but in the fact that a 2017 study by Pew Research found that when compared to the rest of the world, the US is ranked 38th when it comes to math scores and 24th when it comes to science. This lack of educational backbone is incredibly fertile ground for sprouting new fans of Kid Rock … and the GOP at large.
If you can spare a few bucks to support a starving artist, buy me a coffee!
To support for free, follow me on Twitter