I'd encourage you to listen to the song and read through the lyrics before diving into the post.

Top of the food chain
american white male
walks into a concert
Unleashes the hell
brewing inside his ruinous
mind body and soul
Got bodies hittin the floor
Pandemonium broke
Under investigation
Seemingly unprovoked
No religious affiliation
rhyme reason or motive
Everybody cryin’ and wonderin
how and why
But if we keepin’ it real it’s happening all the time
Top of the food chain
american white male
walks into a Church, theatre,
school, mall, or crowd
In the name of nothin’ he
unleashes the hell brewing
inside his privilege pride and prejudice
Media call him crazy
but really it’s curious
Mental illness exists everywhere on the globe
But only in America is every 24
hours another mass shooting
Now we havin’ mass
Light a candle
Thoughts and prayers
But God is not gassed
Prayin’ but hold fast
to gun rights and cash
You made off the goose
who lays golden gats
Glorified war and self-defense myths
A culture of violence
A cycle of death
But nothin’s gone change if the tickets still sell
‘Cause everybody loves an Al Capone tale,
From Hollywood films to these military planes
flying over the field at an NFL game
Murder is a patriot as red white and blue
Apple pie all American
and lucrative too
Big stick politics
What you gon’ do
Top of the food chain
and the only way to stay is to have
a bigger gun and be unafraid to spray
Trickle down from the white house
To the mind of an everyday American
with murder in his eye
Paranoid when you be the king of the hill
Do they kill because they crazy
or crazy because they kill
Top of the food chain
american white male
has gained the whole world
and lost his own POOOOWWWWWW

4 - Top of the Food Chain

I wrote this song three days after the October 1st, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Stephen Paddock, an American white male, open fired at a crowd of concert attendees. He wounded over 500 people, killing 58 of them. Authorities were dumbfounded. As the investigation unfolded, they were struggling to find what they considered a motive for the heinous crime.

Everybody cryin’ and wonderin
how and why
But if we keepin’ it real it’s happening all the time
Top of the food chain
american white male
walks into a Church, theatre,
school, mall, or crowd
In the name of nothin’ he
unleashes the hell brewing
inside his privilege pride and prejudice

Whenever mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas occur, the nation seems to be in disbelief. But in America, that sense of disbelief is dishonest. I wrote this song just three days after the Las Vegas shooting, yet the lyrics accurately foreshadowed a grim reality. We can pretend to be surprised if we want, “but if we keepin’ it real, it’s happening all the time.” Just over a month later, Devin Patrick Kelley, another seemingly unprovoked American white male walked into a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs, Texas and open fired on church members, killing 26 people.

Media call him crazy
but really it’s curious
Mental illness exists everywhere on the globe
But only in America is every 24
hours another mass shooting
Now we havin’ mass
Light a candle
Thoughts and prayers
But God is not gassed

In both the Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs shootings, nearly all major news outlets quickly reported suspicion of mental illness on behalf of the shooter. In the second instance, the shooter did have a history of mental illness. However, the existence of mental illness does not explain how or why these type of shootings happen so regularly in America. Mental illness exists everywhere on planet earth. According to the New York Times article “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings” by Max Fisher and Josh Keller, “If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than do people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries.” Mental health is not the problem. When defined as “four or more people shot in one incident, not including the shooter”, major news outlets including CBS and CNN have reported GunViolenceArchive.org’s findings that the U.S. experiences a mass shooting every single day. This is a uniquely American problem. Politicians across the political spectrum routinely express condolences, “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families, but very little has been done to address how these shootings might be prevented.

Prayin’ but hold fast
to gun rights and cash
You made off the goose
who lays golden gats
Glorified war and self-defense myths
A culture of violence
A cycle of death
But nothin’s gone change if the tickets still sell
‘Cause everybody loves an Al Capone tale,
From Hollywood films to these military planes
flying over the field at an NFL game
Murder is a patriot as red white and blue
Apple pie all American
and lucrative too

How can many of the same politicians who claim to grieve the loss of innocent life turn around and defend what has proven to be deadly gun policies? The answer: culture and money. More specifically, a culture whose moral compass points towards money. American culture loves guns. We love movies and video games with guns, we love the heroic images of soldier holding guns. We love the ability to own multiple guns. We insist that gun ownership is a human right and anyone trying to take our guns away is trying to take our freedom away. In some skewed reality, some people believe, the more guns we have, the more free we are. The Fisher and Keller article quoted earlier states that “Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns.” 270 million guns to be exact. Those guns require ammunition, upkeep and repair. Not to mention the pro-gun bumper stickers, t shirts and mugs. Guns are a lucrative industry that The National Rifle Association aggressively defends, no matter how many innocent lives are lost.

“‘In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate,’ Dan Hodges, a British journalist, wrote in a post on Twitter two years ago, referring to the 2012 attack that killed 20 young students at an elementary school in Connecticut. ‘Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over’ ” (Fisher and Keller).

Big stick politics
What you gon’ do
Top of the food chain
and the only way to stay is to have
a bigger gun and be unafraid to spray
Trickle down from the white house
To the mind of an everyday American
with murder in his eye
Paranoid when you be the king of the hill
Do they kill because they crazy
or crazy because they kill
Top of the food chain
american white male
has gained the whole world
and lost his own POOOOWWWWWW

If there is a mass shooting everyday in America, surely not all the shooters are white men, why then do I repeatedly emphasize “American white male” shooters in a song addressing gun violence? First, it is necessary to acknowledge what others often have, that whenever there is a mass shooting in America, the race of the shooter has a significant impact on how these shootings are reported. If the shooter is a person of color, they are described in the most aggressive and unflattering language possible. Particularly, if the person is Middle-Eastern and identifies as Muslim, it is immediately considered an act of terror, not an unfortunate tragedy by a mentally unstable person. Yet there have been dozens of religious white shooters, like Dylan Roof who believed himself to be a Christian, and believe his actions were pleasing to God, yet he was not painted as a Christian terrorist. Most white male shooters, whether officially diagnosed or not, are described as being depressed or mentally unstable, as was the case with Stephen Paddock, the white male shooter who inspired “top of the food chain”. I rapped, the “media call him crazy”, but if he was a person of color, he may have been named a monster, gangster, or terrorist instead of mentally unstable.

But back to the question, if mass shooters come from every cultural background, why do I focus on “american white male” shooters in a song about gun violence? I find it fascinating that so often, with white male shooters, authorities conclude that the shootings were unprovoked and without a clear motive. I disagree. Just because the victims are seemingly random and haven’t personally offended the shooter, just because the shooter has no strong affiliation with a party or religion, does not mean the violence is without motive or purpose. The fact that there is a trend of white male mass shooters with no motive should cause us to raise an eyebrow. In America, white men are at the top of the food chain. White men possess the positions of power in nearly every pillar of society, from government, to Wall Street, to Hollywood etc. But one can be “paranoid when you be the king of the hill.” When you rule things, there is a constant fear of losing your power. Even for those who aren’t actually presidents, governors, CEOs or leaders of anything, there is a myth of white american supremacy for every white man, and a very real fear of losing that supremacy. How do you create a sense of security in your position at the top of the food chain? As President Teddy Roosevelt once said concerning his foreign relations policy, “speak softly and carry a big stick.” In other words, be a bully. Maintain your spot at the top by superficial politeness and a constant threat of incredible violence. During investigations, many of the white male shooters are described as soft spoken, shy, average Joes, and yet they lash out in murderous tantrums at seemingly random times. I do not believe these killings are random and motiveless. It is the same reason the elementary school bully will randomly terrorize their classmates. As adults, we look back and see that the bully was actually the most sensitive and insecure child on the playground. The random acts of terror were to instill fear and cheap respect in other kids while masking the bullies own insecurities. Likewise, when insecure white men with superiority complexes are under stress, they take lives. Anyones’ lives. What greater display of power is there than indiscriminate killing? Even if it cost the shooter their life, they went down in a blaze of glory, exerting their incredible power. This is the same logic employed by young white soldiers who eagerly join the military, ready to die flexing America’s muscles, wagging America’s big stick. The only way to stay at the top of the food chain is to have the biggest stick, and you must use it every now and then so people know you’re serious.

I end the song by quoting words of Jesus in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Top of the food chain
american white male
has gained the whole world
and lost his own POOOOWWWWWW

Grace and Peace,

Micah

4 - Top of the Food Chain

Chris Cambell