film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

tay-zonday-twitter-header.png

So Tay 'Chocolate Rain' Zonday's Twitter Feed is Fantastic

By Petr Navovy | Celebrity | November 13, 2018 |

By Petr Navovy | Celebrity | November 13, 2018 |


tay-zonday-twitter-header.png

The early days of the internet were a fascinating time. Before the giants consolidated their power and the gates were closed the World Wide Web felt like it was a place with a few more W’s than it has now. Strange, innovative characters roamed the landscape of the World Wide Wild West Web. Flash animations went to surreal, irreverent places. Restless creativity was in abundance. One of the future gate-keeping titans of the web, YouTube, launched properly at the end of 2005, and one of its biggest early hits came just over a year later in April of 2007 when a YouTuber by the name of Tay Zonday released a video of him performing his song, ‘Chocolate Rain’. You can see why the video had so much of what these days we call viral potential. It’s a perfect storm of factors that intrigue, amuse, and call for repeat viewings: The simplicity of it; the juxtaposition of Tay’s youthful looks and deep, dramatic voice; his idiosyncratic delivery; and the apocalyptic imagery in the lyrics glimpsed in between the almost religiously intoned refrain. Truth be told it’s a banger. It was a banger then and it’s a banger now.

Tay made no secret of the fact that ‘Chocolate Rain’ was written as a metaphor for the institutional racism suffered by African-Americans in the U.S. The lyrics in between that meme-ready refrain made this pretty clear to those who would look beyond the surface:

Chocolate Rain Some stay dry and others feel the pain

Chocolate Rain

A baby born will die before the sin

Chocolate Rain Build a tent and say the world is dry

Chocolate Rain

Zoom the camera out and see the lie

Chocolate Rain

Seldom mentioned on the radio

Chocolate Rain

It’s the fear your leaders call control

Unlike many other early internet stars, Tay is still very much around. I stumbled upon his Twitter feed the other day. And you know what?

It’s fantastic. Insightful, philosophical, and impassioned, Tay’s Twitter feed taps deftly into the manufactured malaise of the modern day, and I for one am hooked.

And this—this right here is the absolute tits:

When the Revolution comes I’m all in for Tay Zonday writing our anthem.



Header Image Source: Twitter