Constructing 'The Day After'

Abstract

Based out of Atlanta, GA, rap group Goodie Mob emerged in 1995 and gained critical and commercial success in large part through their ability to maintain a lyrical and musical balance between prophetically biting social commentaries concerning racism, poverty, violence, and sexism with an overtly theistic (and often Christian) metaphysical program responsive to these concerns. One way Goodie Mob maintains this balance is through the heuristic of death. Often, the group suggests death - the fear or exaggeration of it - is responsible for the individual and social sufferings that offer a starting platform for their prophetic critiques. At other times, death is deemed the only real solution to suffering. During these moments, death offers an end to suffering and the discovery of a response to the absurdity and arbitrariness of death and suffering. Using Goodie Mob's lyrics, this essay explores the relationship between metaphysical constructions and social injustices like white supremacy, and ultimately concludes that white supremacy might be thought of as a metaphysical system.