In this post, I will tell you what the song, “The Instrumental,” By Lupe Fiasco really means. You can listen to it on youtube, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5eHWIis6U
This song is talking about the media and how it can control your life. The song constantly refers to the “box.” The box is the media and the television and how it is telling him what to do and say, and in a sense brainwashing him. It says:
“He just sits, and watches the people in the boxes
Everything he sees he absorbs and adopts it
He mimics and he mocks it
Really hates the box but he can’t remember how to stop, it
Uhh, so he continues to watch it Hoping that it’ll give him something that he can box with”
This is saying that he originally watched the “box”. He watched it because everyone else was. He takes in all of the thoughts and ideas from the “box,” or media, and he follows what it says. It says that he hates the “box” but can’t remember how to stop it, which is saying that he doesn’t want to do it, but since his peers are listening to it and in turn acting to it, so does he. He continues to watch it hoping that it will tell him what to do and in a sense taking away all individualism from him. This is completely wiping his mind of all thoughts and ideas that are original to him and focusing on the mainstream and the media, trying to fit in. It says:
“Or how the locksmith, see the box as, locked in the box
Ain’t got the combination to unlock, it
That’s why he watch-es, scared to look away
Cause at that moment, it might show him
What to take off the locks with
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that”
The locksmith doesn’t even know how to unlock it, no one knows to unlock it or stop the media from controlling you, so he continues to watch it in hopes it will tell him how to stop it. It takes away his voice, just leaving him instrumental, silent, until all he becomes is one with the “box“. Therefore if the box is taken away, so is he. This makes it impossible for him to live on his own, he depends on the “box” in order to survive. The chorus then says “he never lies, because he never says anything at all,” which is because the box has left him silent, “instrumental.” It later says:
“Anything not coming out the box he blocks it
See he loves to box and hope they never stop it
Anything the box tell him to do, he does it
Anything it tell him to get, he shops and he cops it
He protects the box, locks it in a box
when he goes to sleep, but he never sleeps
Cause he stays up to watch it, scared to look away
Cause at that moment, it might get stolen
And that’s the last of the boxes
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it”
This is saying that he becomes so obsessed with the “box” that he isolates himself from everything else, because the only way he can live is the “box“. Then he becomes paranoid that the box will be lost, and in turn so will he, so he becomes over protective of the “box,” and he now loves the box, even though it is the very thing that may destroy his existence. In a sense he becomes so stuck on what the media and the mainstream tell him to do, that he has no opinions about himself or anyone around, and does not care about anything else but what the media tells him. The following lyrics say:
“Uhh, and you can’t tell me just who you are
You buy new clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can’t take it back to the start”
This is saying that you however, can not judge him, because you too are so focused on fitting in and on the mainstream and materialism that you too have fallen victim to the “box” with out even realizing it. You buy new cloths to hide those scars, which is referring to the fact that you buy things to try to hide your unhappiness and try to fit in at the same time because the “box” has rid you from individualism. It says you build that roof just to hide those stars, which is a metaphor for hiding your individualism, the stars represent your ideas, and the roof represent the “box” which you hide in and obey, stealing from you your individualism. It is saying that you too can not be freed from the box and are desperate to unlock yourself from the box, but do not know how. What this truly means is that you can not stand out from the crowd because if you stood out from the crowd and did not listen to the box, and did not buy the things that are said to be “cool” then people would look at you different and you would not fit in.
This entire song is referring to individualism, materialism, and the media. The “box” is the mainstream or the media, telling you what is cool, which if you do not listen to then you can not fit in with anyone. This is stealing your individualism, which is the key to “unlocking the box,” which is also taken away from that very same “box.” This song refers to materialism because it says you buy new things to try to make you happy, because the “box” tells you it will make you happy, and in a sense, “cool.” You buy all of these new things because it seems to be how you “unlock the box“, to fit in, which in reality, standing out is the actual secret to beating the media.
Your Metaphoric Musical Translator,
Through My Eyes
