1985, I arrived
33 years, damn, I’m grateful I survived
We wasn’t s’posed to get past 25
Jokes on you motherf*cker, we alive
All these niggas popping now is young
Everybody say the music they …
[Intro]
K-naan
Let go let go let go (drop drop drop)
Let go let go let go (drop drop drop)
Drop drop drop drop
[Hook]
Pouring up the lean, yeah that drop
Pull up to the party …
[Intro]
Yeah
So many sore losers keep tryna talk to me
Y’all need to focus on winning, stop focusing on me
Yeah
[Verse]
Thirteen thousand in Portugal, that’s arena talk
You still on your Training Day, you …
[Verse 1]
Exercise to stay alive
Another year has gone and passed you by
Waking up to coffee cup
Stretch it off, rip it up
[Verse 2]
When the old man gets to see it
He’ll be …
You’ve been confusing since the day I met you
Another night chasing, this feels like home
Since I’ve been miles away from change
Outside or inside looking dazed
Just wash the glitter off your …
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man
They say murdered three.1
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.2
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out
For his love to flee.3
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run,
So we’d both be free.4
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope,5
Side by side6 with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run,
So we’d both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man
They say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out
For his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it seem
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.7
This haunting tune of “The Hanging Tree” originally written by Suzanne Collins for her Hunger Games book series invokes imagery comparable to lynching trees, such as those white supremacists commonly used to hang African-Americans in the United States.
If someone is unfortunate enough to meet someone else in the hanging tree, both of them are probably dead already.
A man being hung might make a desperate cry to his lover to run away, lest she also be hanged.
Each verse of this song has a minor lyrical change. In this verse, there is a sense of all-or-nothing desperation, a need to escape the hanging tree’s fatal wrath. This part can also be interpreted as “death sets us free”. In other words, are you coming to the hanging tree, where you will be hung and set free. You can see the play on words here – one’s knowledge that he or she will be hung, and yet this will set them free.
“Necklace of rope” refers to a noose.
“Side by side” typically invokes a positive image of companionship, but in this case, the phase conjures imagery of two bodies swinging lifelessly next to one another.
The song ends with an eerie chorus of voices and horn instruments that cause listeners to fear the idea of the hanging tree.
No user explanations or meanings