The Depths: Hip-Hop Analysis (2) Summer Grind Issue 2012

Song: “Keep Going”

Artist: T-Pain

Album: Thr33 Ringz (2008)

The reputation that T-Pain has garnered for himself since his debut has been one of Auto-Tune and fun party records that invade you with amazingly written choruses and beautiful beats that are memorable without being annoying or grating. His third album Thr33 Ringz looked to be much of the same. Surely many of you remember “Can’t Believe It”, “Freeze”, and “Chopped & Skrewed”. Any thought of that was changed when I heard the short but powerful “Keep Going”.

(Yeah, uh

(clears throat)

Keep going, yeah)

They get me up in the morning

They give me reason to believe I’m here

For somebody

For someone

They make me feel so joyous

Happiness ain’t the word to describe what I feel

The first verse starts with T-Pain doing ad libs, clearing his throat and preparing to say something that you can almost feel is close to the heart. He speaks about the reason that he gets up. The ‘they’ he refers to seems to be his family. By his admission in the verse he says they are his joy and the happiness that he cannot rightly describe in mere words.

Like when I try to give it up

Sick and tired of all this stuff

They give me reason

To keep going

When I feel that I should quit

I keep going

This chorus calls his family the reason that he keeps at the things that sometimes tire him, whether it be music or the industry itself. They also give him the motivation to keep from quitting.

I never knew this would happen

And if you knew about my past

You would see why it’s a miracle

But you can see why I’m happy

Nobody wished this for me

This was prayer

Where would I be without them?

He speaks of his rise to success in the second verse. He refers to a rough past that doesn’t reflect where he is now, calling the change a miracle. He also says that that same fame wasn’t something he wished for or gained by osmosis. Instead he states plainly that prayer caused it, wondering where he would be in this life without his family’s prayers.

And when I try to give it up

Sick and tired of all this stuff

When I feel like it’s enough

I keep going

They give me reason to keep going

And going

And going



Courtesy of Lucius Black for Royalty Magazine