When Yungblud released “Parents” in 2019, the English singer born Dominic Harrison reiterated a rebellion that many had expressed before him. The track, a kind of pop-punk rap, offers a revolt against the adults and an empowerment anthem for the young.
Parents Just Don’t Understand
In the opening verse, Harrison speaks to the anxiety many feel as they navigate a tumultuous world. He criticizes the previous generation for both their political decisions and cultural parochialism.
The song echoes the violent satire of Eminem’s early work as the narrator locks his dad in a shed and then has sex with a boy to spite his father.
I was born in a messed-up century,
My favorite flavored sweets are raspberry amphetamines.
I bought a car, Beretta, age sixteen,
I brush my teeth with bleach ’cause I ain’t got time for cavities.
My daddy put a gun to my head,
Said, “If you kiss a boy, I’m gonna shoot you dead.”
So I tied him up with gaffer tape, and I locked him in a shed,
Then I went out to the garden, and I f***ed my best friend.
The chorus begins with dour cynicism, but Harrison ends on a hopeful note. Maybe the olds just have it all wrong. And this generation will finally get it right, he thinks.
’Cause my high hopes are getting low,
Because these people are so old.
The way they think about it all,
If I tried, I would never know.
My high hopes are getting low,
But I know I’ll never be alone.
It’s all right, we’ll survive,
’Cause parents ain’t always right.
Stop the Clock
Harrison told Official Charts in the U.K., “This song is literally a tribute to individualism. A statement saying that no one, except yourself, can dictate what is right for you and your life and who you should be.”
He aimed to make the track a distillation of Dominic Harrison and his public persona, Yungblud.
“I wanted it to kind of sound a bit like Eminem in 2019 and have the instrumentation to almost be comical and witty and in your face and the lyrics to be as completely outrageous as the pictures are in my head. I wanted it to be Dom/YUNGBLUD completely uncensored.”
Tick, tock, stop the clock,
Because I get the feeling that I’m gonna get shot.
Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage