"Do you like sad songs?" a student asked me yesterday.
"Yes," I answered without hesitation.
"Then you should hear Train food," he told me. "It. is. sad." He looked me directly in the eyes, and I believed him.
I handed him one of the post-it notes I was carrying around as I helped students clarify the claims for their essays and find evidence to put in the outline. "Write it down and I'll listen to it," I said.
"It might have bad language in it," he warned me.
"I've heard cussing before," I assured him taking the pink square of paper and tucking it in my pocket.
I wondered what this child who pushed everyone away and had already lived such a hard life could find so sad.
When I checked out the song I found that it was by a young rap artist named XXXTentacion who was killed in a robbery attempt early last summer at the age of 20. Train food is a track on his posthumously released album and tells the story of a young man kidnapped by death and left on the train tracks to die. It has haunting background sounds and ends abruptly with what is presumably the death of the narrator. It's almost too sad to be sad, but it is pretty eerie, especially given the artists early death.
More importantly, I could see why my student found it so moving, and I'll be glad to have something to talk with him about. Who knows? Maybe we'll even find a connection.
"Yes," I answered without hesitation.
"Then you should hear Train food," he told me. "It. is. sad." He looked me directly in the eyes, and I believed him.
I handed him one of the post-it notes I was carrying around as I helped students clarify the claims for their essays and find evidence to put in the outline. "Write it down and I'll listen to it," I said.
"It might have bad language in it," he warned me.
"I've heard cussing before," I assured him taking the pink square of paper and tucking it in my pocket.
I wondered what this child who pushed everyone away and had already lived such a hard life could find so sad.
When I checked out the song I found that it was by a young rap artist named XXXTentacion who was killed in a robbery attempt early last summer at the age of 20. Train food is a track on his posthumously released album and tells the story of a young man kidnapped by death and left on the train tracks to die. It has haunting background sounds and ends abruptly with what is presumably the death of the narrator. It's almost too sad to be sad, but it is pretty eerie, especially given the artists early death.
More importantly, I could see why my student found it so moving, and I'll be glad to have something to talk with him about. Who knows? Maybe we'll even find a connection.
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