Somebody's baby boy ain't coming home tonight

We don't need no baseball bats
We don't need no silver ghats
But we're gonna fight tonight
Put up your dukes and fight
Big brother's just standing on the side
Watching you flex your pride
But you know if they all jump in
Big brother's got your skin

The ice cream truck it sings no more
All the kids from school are keeping score
You swing and you duck and you hit the floor
but you gotta get up at least once more
Mama comes screaming down the stairs
Everybody looks but nobody scared
Mama can't believe that nobody cares
It's her baby boy how do they dare
Mama says bitch come over here
If you're so tough you'll have no fear
But why'd you bring all your friends
And the whole damn school
To watch my baby boy go down like a fool

But brother says mama they're the same damn size
Got to let him grow up and get street wise
But mama says baby go get that bat
And come back down and beat some ass

Somebody's baby boy ain't coming home tonight

One wrong move and it'll be too late
Mama won't be making no birthday cake
It all went down one afternoon
In Brooklyn



Lyrics submitted by diabolical

Track duration: 04:09


South 2nd song meanings
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35 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:This song was actually dedicated to 15 yr old, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was shot by two police. The police were ordered to withdraw from the confrontation, but ignored their superiors and started to provoke a group of teenagers by verbally abusing them. They claimed they shot 2 warnings and one to the ground but witnesses claimed that the guns were pointed towards the kids. Alexandros was defending himself against them during the exchange of verbal abuse, and was probably acting like any 15 yr old boy who was being provoked. He was rushed to hospital but later pronounced dead. This event lead to the 2008 riots in Athens where teenagers from the age of 12 took to the streets to rebel against the government for their complete ignorance. There was a huge uproar about it and it was all over the papers across the world.
    Flag RedPanda93on January 10, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:Bianca has a fascination with Jean Genet, I think this has alot to do with being gay and getting bullied for it. Beautiful Boyz follows suit with this theme. Jean Genet was sort of the inspiration for these songs.
    Flag Allieassholeon September 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The delivery of the line "somebody's baby boy ain't coming home tonight" is really eerie to me. I imagine something like a modern day beansidhe/banshee who followed an irish family when they settled in New York, and she's washing clothes on her apartment's balcony, and singing sadly about who it is is going to die.
    Flag morethanadreamon July 22, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:it is song about growing up. nobody dies, just mamas baby boy will become a man.
    Flag IVANANEBOon April 18, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:it is song about growing up. nobody dies, just mamas baby boy will become a man.
    Flag IVANANEBOon April 18, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:it is song about growing up. nobody dies, just mamas baby boy will become a man.
    Flag IVANANEBOon April 18, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:it is song about growing up. nobody dies, just mamas baby boy will become a man.
    Flag IVANANEBOon April 18, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is about a wild guy and he's real confident. He seeks attention by belittling others. His brother is gay and has his own problems. They're are both mama boys. the brothers are caught making out at school. mom doesnt care she says its all just kid stuff. the family remains clos even though the one brother turned the other gay the mom still loves them as the town hates there guts. i can't breathe.
    Flag funeraldanceron January 12, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always thought that It was about a shy boy, and he makes bad decisions. He gets into fights because he doesn't want people to pick on him anymore. His brother encourages him fighting. His mother wants it to stop but neither of her sons listens to her. One day, the boy gets into a nasty fight in front of the whole school and is killed.
    "Mama can't believe that nobody cares. It's her baby boy how do they dare"
    This shows what the mother was feeling. She can't believe that the kids don't care about her son, because he's her whole world.
    "Mama won't be making no birthday cake. It all went down one afternoon. In Brooklyn"
    She won't ever make his birthday cake again because he'll never get older. This all happened in Brooklyn.
    Flag lyssophobiaon January 12, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Ok so like people have said a fight between 2 young boys. But I don’t think it’s just one fight, it’s a series of fights that end up escalating and upping the ante till one of them dies.

    “We don't need no baseball bats
    We don't need no silver ghats
    But we're gonna fight tonight
    Put up your dukes and fight”

    Pretty self explanatory, a fist fight. But remember the first 2 lines, they’ll come into play later.

    “All the kids from school are keeping score
    You swing and you duck and you hit the floor
    but you gotta get up at least once more”

    Everyone’s keeping score so it‘s more than one fight, by hitting the floor he either got knocked out or didn’t win that fight whatever. But he has to do it again to rid of the shame of being beaten.

    “But why'd you bring all your friends
    And the whole damn school
    To watch my baby boy go down like a fool”

    The mother of the beaten boy is obviously upset in finding her son beaten and feels he’s being picked on and is outnumbered.

    “But mama says baby go get that bat
    And come back down and beat some ass”

    And it sounds like because of that she recommends he goes out with a bat for the next fight.

    “One wrong move and it'll be too late
    Mama won't be making no birthday cake”

    So I guess he did go out with the bat, possibly beat the other boy or was shot before he had a chance. It was just a fist fight, but it escalated. Judging from the first 2 lines if one boy brought a bat as retaliation, than the next thing after for the other would be a gun “silver gat”.
    Flag Tunkamajion November 05, 2009   Link

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