A Breakdown of Eminem’s “Untouchable” Lyrics
Photos by David J. Hogan/Getty, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Disclaimer: Eminem, who just released new song “Untouchable” this morning with the promise of new album Revival next week, is getting the most attention for something that needs to be said, yes—but something that other rappers aren’t getting as much attention for rapping about. The platinum-toting rapper appeals more to white audiences, but this is with the hopes that they’ll actually listen. He makes the message very real, very visceral and very plain.
“White boy, white boy, you’re untouchable,” he raps. “Black boy, black boy, we don’t get your culture and/ We don’t care what our government done to fuck you over, man.” In trademark Slim Shady form he follows different characters and speaks for the break of the whole system, flowing seamlessly from segregation to gentrification to racial violence to poverty and back again. “And we’re trapped in, these racial biases,” he says, after spitting ugly truth after ugly truth like gunfire:
And that’s racism
Fear to the black face gives them
A subconscious racist
Wait, why is there black neighborhoods?
‘Cause America segregated us
Designated us, to an area
Separated us
Section-eight’d us
When we tear it up’s the only time attention’s paid to us
And education sucks, every days another
Freddie Grey for us, a levy breaks or fuzz
Why is it, they treat us like dryer lint?
We just want a safe environment for our kids, but can’t escape
The sirens
Don’t take a scientist to see our violent nature lies
In
The poverty that we face so the crime rate’s the highest in
The lowest classes, it’s like a razor wire fence
Billboard published the full lyrics to “Untouchable”—we thought we’d leave them here underneath the audio, allow you to simultaneously take a closer look at what Eminem has to say about police brutality, the police state we inhabit, the white man’s refusal to interrogate privilege, the McDonald’s where “It seems like the only franchise that’ll hire, so how can we have higher standards/ As Dallas overshadows the battle for Black Lives Matter.” There’s no need to worry, after all, if you’re not on the radar.
Eminem in the news most recently, went off on Trump during a Freestyle at the BET awards and won a lawsuit when the nationalist party tried to use “Lose Yourself” in a campaign ad (as he says in the chorus with Cheech & Chong “(The world’s coming to an end, I don’t even care)/
Nobody can tell me shit cause I’m a (big rockstar).” Because if you’re still having a productive day while pretending the world isn’t burning and the nation wasn’t built on the blood of Natives and on the back of slavery, then bully for you.
Read the full lyrics to “Untouchable” below under the audio, and revisit “Free Style” 1999 from the Paste Cloud.
Pt. I
[Intro]
Hands up, officer don’t shoot
Then pull your pants up, promise you won’t loot
We may never understand each other it’s no use
We ain’t ever gonna grasp what each other goes through
[Verse 1]
Black boy, black boy, we ain’t gonna lie to you
Black boy, black boy, we don’t like the sight of you
Pull up on the side of you
Window rolled down, profiled
And then we wonder why we see this side of you
Probably coming from the dope house
We can let you slide but your tail light is blew, out
We know you’re hiding that Heidi Klum on you
And you’re on another drug charge, homie, it’s back inside for you
And just in case a chase might ensue, we got that tried and true pistol drew right at you we be delighted to unload it
In your bedroom, walk up, and lay that taser in the side of you
What the fuck am I gonna do?
I keep telling myself keep doing like you’re doing
No matter how many lives you ruin
It’s for the red, white and blue
Time to go find a new one and split his head right in two
No one’s ever indicted you
Why?
[Chorus: Eminem & (Cheech and Chong)]
‘Cause you’re a white boy, white boy
You’re a rockstar (My momma talk to me
Try to tell me how to live)
White boy, white boy, in your cop car (But I don’t listen to her
‘Cause my head is like a sieve)
White boy, white boy, you’re untouchable (The world’s coming to an end, I don’t even care)
Nobody can tell me shit ‘cause I’m a (big rockstar)
[Verse 2]
Black boy, black boy, we don’t get your culture and
We don’t care what our government’s done to fuck you over, man
Don’t tell us your attitude’s a result of that
Balderdash, where’d you get the chip on your shoulder at
Why you kicking that soda can?
Pull your pants up
We bought to roll up, and
Throw your ass in the van, cuffed
You don’t have to know our plan or what our intentions are
Our guns are close to our chest
You better show your hands
And put our minds more at ease
And you’ll get shot in the thyroid, ‘cause you might die, boy
We fighting a crime war
Here come the swine
Tryna’ clean up these streets from all these minorities
That’s why we call them pigstye’s for
They’re like eyesores to police
Talk to you like you’re a piece of trash
Feels like we’re stuck in a time warp to me
As I kick these facts, and
Get these mixed reactions
As this beat backspins
It like we’re drifting back into the 60s
Having black-skin is risky, ‘cause this keeps happening
Throughout history, African-American’s have been treated like shit
And I admit, there have been times where it’s been embarrassing to be a
[Chorus: Eminem & (Cheech and Chong)]
‘Cause you’re a white boy, white boy
You’re a rockstar (My momma talk to me
Try to tell me how to live)
White boy, white boy, in your cop car (But I don’t listen to her
‘Cause my head is like a sieve)
White boy, white boy, you’re untouchable (The world’s coming to an end, I don’t even care)
Nobody can tell me shit cause I’m a (big rockstar)
Pt. II
[Verse 3]
Seems like, the average lifespan of a white man
Is more than twice that of a black life-spanner
Wonder if sometimes it has a fight scanner
I feel like checking out on life, can’t escape my circumstance
I’d rather hear them say “Die N-word” than Die Antwoord
Ninja, now it’s better to describe banter
But that’s life
Strapped, ‘cause we’re strapped financially
And can’t find answers
We’re applying for McDonald’s
It seems like the only franchise that’ll hire, so how can we have higher standards
As Dallas overshadows the battle for Black Lives Matter
We fight back with violence
But acts like that are
Black eyes on the movement
Which makes wack lives madder
At cops and cops madder
And that’s why it’s at a stalemate
Can’t arrive at a compromise so it’s Black Ops
I wonder if we hire more, black cops, the crap stops
The block is our backyard offices
Not the crack spot
Call the attack dogs off of us, man
You always act pissed off at us a traffic stop
And bad cops fuck it up for good cops
And man, stop, sending white cops, into black neighborhoods
‘Cause they ain’t acclimated to ‘em
Like that’s the way to do it
Who’s seen some fuckin’ videos of rappers waving guns
And no nobody black so they act afraid of us
And that’s racism
Fear to the black face gives them
A subconscious racist
Wait, why is there black neighborhoods?
‘Cause America segregated us
Designated us, to an area
Separated us
Section-eight’d us
When we tear it up’s the only time attention’s paid to us
And education sucks, every days another
Freddie Grey for us, a levy breaks or fuzz
Why is it, they treat us like dryer lint?
We just want a safe environment for our kids, but can’t escape
The sirens
Don’t take a scientist to see our violent nature lies
In
The poverty that we face so the crime rate’s the highest in
The lowest classes, its like a razor wire fence
And we’re trapped in, these racial biases
That plague our society which makes our anxiety levels raise
Every time we see a devil’s face
Lions, tigers and bears oh my! More like billy clubs and
Gats
And we really love it when you think we’re guilty ‘cause
We’re black
“But you kill each other, facts- you peel each
Others caps, for silly stuff like hats”
Single mother strugglin’ through substance abuse
While people with nothing to lose shoot each other for shoes
Fuck your republican views
Pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, where the fuck is the boots?
And streets act as a narrator
Don’t gotta read comics
Or be that into characters, just to see that just to be black, you better be strapped, with a derringer- or be “capped in America” like Steve Rogers
‘Cause no one overseas, these cops, and
Always see some B charges
We see them beat Rodney King and got off
So we don’t need all your crooked police peace officer offerings
Just keep marching, til’ we reach congress
But they gonna say you’re tying to take an irrational stance cause you try to slander the flag
But somebody has to be the sacrificial lamb
So they call it a Kaepernick tantrum if you don’t stand for the national anthem
We raised it, you better praise it or you’ll be made to feel like a traitor, we’ll
Treat you like Rodney Dangerfield
Home of the bravest still, racist spills
So the whole nation feels like a plantation field
In a country that claims that it was foundation on based on united states ideals
That had its Natives killed
Got you singing the Star Spangled Banner to a piece of cloth that represents the land of the free that made people slaves to build