Perfect Playlist- Scott Street

My perfect playlist would consist of a wide variety of music, however the underlying theme would be relevance, how meaningful the lyrics of the song are. Here is my list:

1. Lost in the Flood- Bruce Springsteen. Off of his debut album, Springsteen showed exactly what a masterful lyricist he was. He spoke about how tough life was and how he lived (he lived in Jersey), and this track spoke exactly of how cruel, how brutal, and how hard his life was when he was growing up.
2. Under the Bridge- Red Hot Chili Peppers. This song talks about a man's struggle against drugs and how he threw his life away "under the bridge downtown". (presumably mirroring the life of guitarist John Frusciante.) This song is meaningful to me because it has shown me what the dangers and effects of drug abuse can be through music.
3. Money Trees- Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick talks about how having money can bring pleasure and everything that we desire as humans, but it can also shade us from the problems going on in the world. "Money trees is the perfect place for shade, and that's just how I feel." The money tree is symbolic of the ignorance that money brings with it, and Kendrick is trying to let his listeners know this.
4. '03 Adolescence- J. Cole. J. Cole recounts his childhood, and of his realization of how fortunate he was compared to his friends and others. He speaks of his troubles with girl and a low self esteem, but when he compared his life to his friend, he was lucky to be going off to a college degree and a bright future instead of staying at home dealing drugs, like his friend was going to have to do.
5. Changes- Tupac Shakur. Tupac talks about how, with all that's wrong with the world, there should be more changes than actually happen. He talks about police brutality, racism, class divisions, and politics, and given all of these problems, he still sees no attempt to fix these problems or an end to these problems. So, he went and wrote a song virtually protesting and advocating for these changes to be made, because "still [he] sees no changes."