Current Events > I have a question pertaining to rapper T.I.'s hit 2003 song ''Rubberband Man''

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm trying to examine this from something of a scholarly angle, but as we know; the hook to the hit song is along the lines of:

Rubberband Man, wild as the Taliban
Nine in my right, Forty-Five in my other hand
Call me "Trouble Man," I'm always in trouble, man
Worth a couple hundred grand, Chevys all colors, man.

My inquiry stems from that last line. Particularly this part:

Chevys all colors, man.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what T.I. meant by this, as this line can be taken in two separate ways:

The first being my initial beliefhe has many expensive Chevrolet vehicles and they come in all possible colors available, which speaks on his extensive wealth.

But a recent interpretation that crossed my mind takes a slightly different direction: Could it be that he's actually saying:

Chevy's all colors, man


As in, his singular Chevy vehicle is all colors. The more I thought about it, the more I see that this isn't unfounded at all.
Rainbow Candy colored Chromaflair paint jobs were very popular in the early 2000s, especially within the Southern Hip-Hop scene (Mr. Harris hails from Atlanta, GA). These paint styles were very expensive and seen as a status symbol. The more colorful, the more alluring. Could it be that T.I. is saying that his Chevy vehicle has this very, very expensive paint-job, displaying all colors, thus, making his status more pronounced when it's out and about? Or the original belief?

What do you all think?
Your mind on procrastination

It's clearly the former.
The artist is describing several things here
'rubberband man', a picce of elastic string, known to 'bounce back'
'taliban', a terrorist group who never quite went away, who 'bounced back'
"Nine in my right, Forty-Five in my other hand', indicating he is prepared to fight
'Trouble Man, always in trouble, man', he admits that the person is always in trouble and even given a nickname for it
'"worth a couple hundred grand', something is worth high value
'Chevys, all color, man', indicating that his cars of all colors are worth the high value

I hope this helps

catfan2008 posted...

It's clearly the former.
The artist is describing several things here
'rubberband man', a picce of elastic string, known to 'bounce back'
'taliban', a terrorist group who never quite went away, who 'bounced back'
"Nine in my right, Forty-Five in my other hand', indicating he is prepared to fight
'Trouble Man, always in trouble, man', he admits that the person is always in trouble and even given a nickname for it
'"worth a couple hundred grand', something is worth high value
'Chevys, all color, man', indicating that his cars of all colors are worth the high value

I hope this helps

ya this was always my take too.

shout out to the line but why the rubber band? It representing the struggle man

such a good line.

Yeah, he's definitely talking about multiple cars. Having 1 rainbow car isn't much of a flex. And he talks about having multiple cars in other songs as well.

He has triples of the Chevy

Zeeak4444 posted...

ya this was always my take too.

shout out to the line but why the rubber band? It representing the struggle man

such a good line.

He is young with the soul of an old man, after all.

kinda sucks that there actually is a superhero named Rubberband Man yet people remember this song over him

tremain07 posted...

kinda sucks that there actually is a superhero named Rubberband Man yet people remember this song over him

It's a good song, yo.
Plus, the Spinners song pre-dates them both.