A Breakdown of Eminem’s “Untouchable” Lyrics

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