Best Song Ever
"I prove you wrong, I made it out of here. I don't belong, I see my past everywhere. Don't stand too close to me, eternal PTSD. I got a war zone on inside of my head. I made it on my own, they said I'd be in jail or dead. I've seen my brothers fall over and over again. Don't stand too close to me, I got PTSD"
PTSD is some shit man. For those not in the know there are actually a couple different types of PTSD. Both of them are shit.
PTSD (likely the one that you associate with PTSD) is big T trauma. This is usually the sort of PTSD that survivors of war (both those who signed up to fight and those who were caught up in the middle). Its about a bit "T" TRAUMA. Usually a single event or a series of events in a small period of time. This PTSD can manifest itself in specific significant reactions to specific triggers related to the incident.
C-PTSD.The C stands for complex trauma. What makes the trauma complex is that it happens over a very long period of time (measured in years). What makes the trauma complex is that its lots of little "t" trauma. If the trauma incident happened once or twice or ten times, it would likely be manageable for the person, but this is the same repeated small trauma over and over again. This trauma creates a lot of coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma. At the time the coping mechanisms are developed they are life-saving, but they don't tend to be healthy reactions to trigger when out of the trauma situation. It's.... complex.
Here we're sorta talking about both types of PTSD. We're talking about some single events that are bit "T" TRAUMAtic (like Chance's verse about seeing someone shot in the head, G Herbo's verse about seeing a friend die) and growing up in a traumatic environment every single day - surrounded by all sorts of things that are traumatic for children: abuse (of self, others, and substances), death, destruction, and FEAR. Fear for children is horrible. And it creates lots of unhealthy coping mechanisms even if you don't define it as traumatic. G Herbo, et al are talking about how pervasive their PTSD is in how they view life. This is maybe best captured by Chance, known for his positivity, saying near the end of his verse, "I still can feel it, I know that the world is eveil in case you think a n**** forgot it."
What I love about this song is that it puts all of G Herbo's music (and lots of hip hop in general) in context. Why is there so much killing, so much gang stuff, so much death and destruction in his lyrics. Its because of this context. This is how he grew up. This isn't just his story. This is the story of many minorities growing up in unsafe environments.
Check out this song.
Music I am digging
The Flag Day Soundtrack is awesome and Eddie Vedder’s daughter appears to have some talent (though Ed is given co-writing credit, so unclear how much of this was his). Still, the album is excellent and you should check it out: