Canada erects protectionist barriers to protect its faltering rock'n'roll industry.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I think it says something about Canadians that the song played for 25 years without one single complaint until now.

Wow. I heard of being in the hicks and being behind the times but even I wouldn't have rated Canada this far behind.

[Wezil]

[Asher]

I don't know what you consider 'lyrical complexity' but technical complexity defined as the usage of polysyllabic rhymes and other poetic devices is greater in that verse than in any rock song I have ever heard.

What the ****. Multisyllabic rhymes are NOT complex. They do not constitute lyric complexity!

They may use lots of "poetic devices" like rhyming ( ), but that doesn't make it complex. It makes it poetry.

When I refer to lyrical complexity, I mean non-literal lyrics. I mean lyrics that say a lot with just a couple words. I don't mean rhyming clit and hit, or COMPLEX MULTISYLLABIC RHYMES like "I let the beat commence so I can beat the sense in your elite defense". I think those are **** lyrics, simple lyrics with childish rhyming only. No substance.

Look at the use of alliteration in this song. Ignore the DJ talking for the first 30 seconds but he explains what rapper Papoose is doing.

You do ****ing alliteration in 8th grade. THAT IS NOT COMPLEX. An aardvark asserts alliteration as ambiance is asinine.

That's a difference in mindset between rap and rock.

Yes. Rap is insincere posturing without soul, with obnoxious beats and simplistic music.

[giblets]

Look at those monosyllabic nursery rhymes!

Sorry. I'm not a fan of vague PRETENTIOUS drivel that is the musical equivalent of this:

What are you talking about? I would love to have that in my home

[Al B. Sure!]

Asher, lyrics that are 'bigger' than what they state are

Like I said, you mightaswell love Jackson Pollack and other abstract artists.

Realism : Jackson Pollack :: Rap : Rock

[giblets]

I think Jackson Pollock was more creative than most rappers are.

[Al B. Sure!]

Asher is no friend of abstract art, that's why I say this, but I think the analogy holds true.

Like rap, Realism is straight-forward without much nuance, it shows what it means, and there's an emphasis on technical mastery of the craft (for rappers, the use of poetic devices; for realist painters, accurate depictions of physical reality).

His rock lyrics are technically simple like Pollack's splashes of paint but underlie greater meaning. Or so he claims, as would an admirer of Pollack.

[Cort Haus]

Alert, assassins at large allegedly
Automatic artillery, angrily aimed and aggressively
Accurate AK's angled all ways
Adversary afraid as active ammunition abraise
Accumulated an alias after arrested
Accompanied armed accessory, as an adolescent

cover cowards' corners collecting cash
Confirmed convicts committing crimes clapping cats
Creeping cashiers causing characters comas, capping crabs
Chaos causing, clearly commanding Cee-Lo
Cocaine capsule caps colored, capturing customer's C-Notes
Confiscating combination, counting cream capulating
Cocking calibur chromes creating casualties

And you think that's good just because someone has strung together a meaningless collection of words starting with the same letter? I won't be wasting any more time on this.

[Asher]

Asher is no friend of abstract art, that's why I say this, but I think the analogy holds true.

Like rap, Realism is straight-forward without much nuance, it shows what it means

eg, simple and not complex.

Thank you.

[Al B. Sure!]

It's not meaningless.

Automatic artillery is angrily aimed aggressively.
Those weapons consist of accurate AK's that will make an adversary afraid as the ammunition abrases him. It is not nonsensical.

Like I said, it's a case of style over substance. Papoose was an up-and-coming rapper who made the song to promote himself. At the end of the video, the DJ even says A&R's call me so you can sign this guy. It was an advertisement basically to showcase Papoose's technical ability.

That was a SHOWCASE.

Just like battle rapping is a showcase.

[Asher]

And you think that's good just because someone has strung together a meaningless collection of words starting with the same letter? I won't be wasting any more time on this.

LOOK HOW COMPLEX THAT IS. HOW CAN YOU NOT RECOGNIZE THE TECHNICAL MASTERY. He must be ridiculously good with dictionary use.

[Asher]

clits *** callously causing caustic collaboration
dicks don't die, due to masturbation[/all-star rapper]

ALLITERATION! METAPHOR! PERSONIFICATION! POLYSYLLABIC RHYMING!

[Al B. Sure!]

Here, Asher. You want lyrics that take effort to decipher. It's still pretty apparent but it's not plain as day to some people.

[Lupe Fiasco]
Uh.. yeah
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
Uh, so he continues to watch it
Hoping that it'll give him something that he can box with
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

[Chorus: Jonah Matranga + (Lupe)]
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
Cause he never said anything at all

[Lupe Fiasco]
He just sits, and listens to the people in the boxes
Everything he hears he absorbs and adopts it
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
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

[Chorus]

[Lupe Fiasco]
(Anything at all..) He never lies
Uh, 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
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

[Chorus]

[Lupe Fiasco]
(Anything at all.. anything at all..)
Uh, 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
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
[repeats and fades as Josh ad libs]

[Asher]

That's better than most, but of course you know it was co-written by a rocker, right?

It's not too deep though. Pretty sure it's about someone addicted to TV or uses it for escape. Mixed in with a little self-loathing.

[Al B. Sure!]

That's better than most, but of course you know it was co-written by a rocker, right?

It's not too deep though. Pretty sure it's about someone addicted to TV or uses it for escape.

Lupe's verses were not written by a rocker.