disparate: utterly different or distinct in kind
youth: you and me

Yo. Santigold is that chick. Always has been. Even though she’s been under wraps for a minute — four years to be exact — she’s back and ready to release her sophomore album Master of My Make Believe (how’s THAT for an empowering title?!?!?). Please get familiar! Check out the album’s second single Disparate Youth.

In an interview, she said the song, like the overall message of the album, is about being in control of your world. “There are so many riots and rebellions going on. It seems like a truth is coming out. Like, ‘Disparate Youth’ is about the youth creating their own world and not having to take this broken shit that’s handed to them.”

For every young generation ready to chase their dreams and change the world, there’s an older generation ready to say “yeah right.” It’s one thing to have “haters” that are your peers, but imagine when you’re fighting a legacy? Imagine the struggle of fighting history? All I’m saying is if you need an anthem right now, here it is. It’s a song about moving upward and onward. If you don’t like your situation, you have the power to change it. Or at least try like hell. Don’t let discouragement force you into complacency.

I honestly can’t just pick one sentence to quote, so here are the lyrics (as I understand them, at least):

Don’t look ahead, there’s stormy weather
Another roadblock in our way
But if we go, we go together
Our hands are tied here if we stay

Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost

Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for

So let them say we can’t do better
Lay out the rules that we can’t break
They wanna sit and watch you wither
Their legacy’s too hard to take

Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost

Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for

In their heads, hedging their bets
In their eyes it shows
When the beacon breaks well then,
You ask and they don’t know
Oh tell me that
I turned my back while the odds all stand beneath me
And they all said I was misled
But now the odds all stand beneath me

Oh ah, oh ah
Frozen to the core
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for

Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost

Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for

Here’s the music video. We won’t get into that now. Just enjoy her words. If it’s not your cup of tea…don’t tell me. Let me have my moment! Don’t keep me down! I’M A DISPARATE YOUTH *runs away to freedom* *collapses*