Review: Grandson’s song “Thoughts and Prayers” depicts a chilling message on mass shootings
May 14, 2018
When alternative musician and rapper Jordan Benjamin, known as Grandson, heard of the tragedy that struck Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, he knew there would be a great change made by the students of the community. Inspired by the students’ courage and determined to call out the faults of politicians, Grandson wrote “Thoughts and Prayers.”
Performing the song in collaboration with the West Los Angeles Children’s Choir, the song opens with their chant, “No thoughts, no prayers, can bring back what’s no longer there. The silent are damned. The body count is on your hands.”
Using the voices of the children to depict the voices of the students who have experienced gun violence, he creates a strong message towards politicians who deny the outcry of gun control and opt to offer their “thoughts and prayers” because of their underlying support of gun industries such as the NRA.
“Smile for the camera. Another politician bought. I swear I heard another shot,” Grandson said in his song.
He creates an accurate representation of the anger directed towards these politicians, as they continue to accept funds from the NRA while school shootings continue to happen. Because of their denial, the number of victims from these tragedies will continue to grow.
The impact of the song reaches its height when the children’s choir sing, “Turn off all the lights nobody make a sound. Ashes to ashes we all fall down. Are we out of time? Can we turn this all around? Are we out of time? Will we all fall.”
Grandson incorporates these chilling lines sung by the children to acknowledge the fears of students, emphasizing their cries of change through their emotions.
“I wanted a rallying cry — something I could say at the march, and I tripped and fell into a song,” Grandson said in an article made by billboard. “I juxtaposed the severity of the situation with an almost sing-song melody and incorporated the children.”
The single was released March 23 with almost a million views on Youtube and nearly 2 million streams on Spotify. Grandson and the choir also performed “Thoughts and Prayers” at the March For Our Lives event in Los Angeles.
Overall, the song is truly inspiring and succeeds in bringing forth a powerful message to take action. The poetic rapping and upbeat music easily captures the listener’s attention. It is amazing to hear Grandson being so passionate through his lyrics and accurately depict the emotions felt by those who have dealt with gun violence.
It is not meant to bring forth anger, but rather to face truths that are hidden behind the thoughts and prayers given by politicians who ignore the movement to put an end to tragedies like the one MSD experienced.
Kenny • Oct 8, 2022 at 7:18 pm
The moderators on this site are biased, of you dont have a comment that aligns with their pseudo-intellectual woke worldview then they will hastily censor your comment with quasi-fairness.
Kenny • Oct 8, 2022 at 7:11 pm
Cringe, gun control d0esnt do anything and thats a fact. Making innocent people criminals doesnt stop crime duh, all because you own an AR-15 doesnt mean that you’re a soon-to-be active shooter. Making a song about liberal ideological opinions doesn’t make you correct and isnt convincing those who are capable of independant thought, and getting children to sing a choir in your song is underhanded, manipulative, and passive aggressive.
This article is cringe, the song is cringe.
Saying that active shootings are happening because there isnt enough gun control shows how bling you people are to data, and logic because there has been nothing but constant gun control for the past century LITERALLY, and gun violence hasnt gone down, as a fatter of fact it has INCREASED. For all you idiots identifying with this song you need a lobotomy asap.
Jäger • Sep 13, 2021 at 2:06 pm
I know I am a bit late to this, however Tess is correct on the gun violence part. Although it is the second most cause of death, it isn’t only counting mass murders or school shootings. That is including self defense or people defending others with firearms. And even at that a lot of mass murders are done by gangs or in general gang members. Most the time they get a gun, they are illegally acquiring the gun, instead of getting it legally due to most the time they are already felons. Gun violence is a rather vague statement, as it is talking about any form of violence using a gun on another person, and that is why it’s including self defense because some times the court system will count self defense as first degree murder/ attempted murder if the one is unlucky enough. People have firearms for hunting, sport shooting, and self defense. Most people do not purchase a firearm to kill people, despite of the amount of mass murders and in general shootings. And according to http://www.oregonlive.com, there are far less deaths by mass shootings than there are suicides and illnesses. Suicides caused by firearms and suicides not done with firearms are at almost the same number, so I see no reason to say that firearms take more lives of children than cancer and other illnesses by a landslide. That is not true. Especially when you look at the past 100 years. Cancer and illnesses has caused way more deaths with children than firearms. And either way by taking away guns completely, they will still be around and they can still be purchased illegally and that will only increase the amount of mass shootings.
Kenny • Oct 8, 2022 at 7:15 pm
You’re so silly (:
People dont have guns for hunting and self defense. Please read the bill of rights and perhaps a history book if you’re capable.
Jerry • Oct 28, 2019 at 10:01 am
Alrighty then
QuoVadisAnima • Oct 21, 2019 at 8:28 pm
The fact is that guns save significantly more lives than they take, but the mass murderers get all the attention. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1916643001
People like to point to European countries as if they don’t have mass killings because they disarm citizens, yet they still do – and things like driving cars into crowds are actually easier for the average person to do.
Tess • Mar 30, 2021 at 12:05 pm
Save more lives then they take ???? Gun violence is the second most cause of death in teens and children, it over takes cancer deaths by a landslide.
Ken • Oct 8, 2022 at 7:20 pm
No it isnt Tess, heart disease and motor vehicle accidents are the 2 leading causes of death.
Randy • Oct 8, 2022 at 7:26 pm
“Gun-ViOlEnCe REEEEEEE”
Tess are you capable of thinking for yourself, or do you get all of your woke arguments from Facebook and Twitter?
Lets assume that guns are a actual problem in this country, what does the psycho shooting people have to do with me?
Why do I have to give up my property for the actions of some crazy liberal with a gun? Fact most mass shootings are perpetrated by liberals. Go ahead and delete this comment too, it just verifys that you people dont care about the truth you only care about the current woke thing.
Jonathan • Jan 9, 2019 at 3:48 pm
Politicians do not “deny the outcry of gun control.. because of their underlying support of gun industries such as the NRA.” Politicians have, in general, pushed for more gun control despite that the majority of American households own guns. They push for gun control despite the fact that legally owned firearms (the ones they are pushing to ban) in the hands of legal citizens are far more likely to be used to prevent a mass shooting than to cause one. They push for gun control despite the fact that every murderous dictator in the last hundred years has first removed firearms from the hands of its citizens (Hitler and Stalin, for example). Luckily there are a few politicians who have listened to the voice of the majority rather than those who would trade their freedom for safety, something that our forefathers warned us about.
Arnold • May 10, 2019 at 5:38 pm
Whatever drug you are taking Jonathan I would love some, cause you are taking something hardcore. “They push for gun control despite the fact that legally owned firearms (the ones they are pushing to ban) in the hands of legal citizens are far more likely to be used to prevent a mass shooting than to cause one.” oh, so where are all these great super heroes when the shootings happen? It’s a fact that most of the shooters get stopped by police not civilians so that is absurdly not true. To add to how insane your statement is 9.8/10 mass shootings are committed using LEGALLY acquired firearms. None of the points you made are even remotely true AND to top it all off, the last fact of removing firearms countries becoming dictatorships is a joke. All of Europe has strict gun laws and we have no problems of mass shootings and school shootings on a daily weekly or even monthly basis with exception of some terrorist attack we are perfect fine. ON TOP OF ALL THAT, most the legislation the politicians are trying to push through is not even to ban all gun ownership, it’s to have stricter background checks and to stop selling AR’s and Automatic Weapons, you are not in a warzone, a pistol is more than enough to defend yourself against an intruder, but stopping a pistol wielding mass shooter would be much more viable than someone with an AR. You are such a pathetic excuse for a person, OR very very nice and high.. Please start thinking before commenting on things.