What It's Like

"What It's Like" is a single from Everlast's 1998 album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. The song is typical of the style Everlast embraced after leaving hip-hop trio House of Pain, being a combination of rock, hip-hop and blues incorporating characterization and empathy towards impoverished protagonists.

The song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for one week and #1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks for nine weeks.^[1] It also peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer's only solo Top 40 hit on the US pop chart to date.^[1] In the United Kingdom, the song reached #34 on the UK Singles Chart.^[2]

Everlast performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 1999, on the show hosted by James Van Der Beek. He also references "What It's Like" on his 2000 song "Whitey's Revenge" in response to an ongoing verbal dispute between him and rapper Eminem. This song was also used as a promo for the 2006-2007 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Song structure

Structurally, the song consists of three verses, a chorus and a bridge. The last line of the chorus varies in accordance with the particular situation faced by the character in the preceding verse. Each character is presented in a sympathetic light as a victim of circumstance and as being an object of derision. Each verse ends with the line God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his/her shoes (in the third verse, "...you ever had to wake up to hear the news") and Cause then you really might know what it's like to, with the action varying depending on what the character has to do (sing the blues, have to choose, and have to lose, respectively).

The characters are:

• A beggar (the man at the liquor store beggin' for your change)
• Mary, a pregnant girl who decides to have an abortion (Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom who said he was in love); when she goes through the door of the clinic, she gets called a "killer", "sinner", and "whore", reflecting criticism thrown to her namesake, Mary Magdalene
• The life of Max, a man with violent friends and an alcohol problem (He liked to hang out late, he liked to get shit-faced and keep the pace with thugs)

At the end of the music video for the song, all of the characters (along with other people) are crowded around a window. Behind the window, an idyllic family is having an enjoyable dinner, oblivious to the less fortunate who are outside.

The Video and Radio Versions use sound effects to cover up the numerous profanities in the song. The Radio Edit omits the third verse that deals with the character Max, cutting about 1 minute off the 5 minute song.

Charts

References