“They got some first world problems
Credit cards to solve ‘em
Daddy’s paying for all their bits
Ivy league and Gucci kicks ”
Good morning first worlders. I hope you’re ready to get potentially triggered haha. We have this excellent single from Drona that really puts first world problems on trial. My favorite part of this song is how dressed up the message is. It’s a relatively upbeat track with smooth vocals that presumably those who are being sung about (if they aren’t listening too closely) would be bumping to. I hope no one finds my next analogy offensive, but this song thematically took me back to middle school and rocking out to “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” by Good Charlotte. Yeah, yeah, Good Charlotte sucks, we get it, but when I was 14, that song captured my angst about a subset of people that seemed very villainous to me (and honestly, the 1% still seems pretty villainous to me on the whole).
Press Release: “First World Problems” is a single from Drona’s upcoming EP “The Third World Season.” The song recounts Drona’s experience of moving from India to the U.S. at the age of 17 and the differences in cultures he encountered. Some of the lyrics in the song are direct references to other pop artists (such as “Pills in Ibiza” – Mike Posner, “Lovers from places that you can’t imagine” – Taylor Swift, “Tell me what you want tell me tell me what you want” – Spice Girls) and others are just first world problems that people seemed to have. “First World Problems” is a catchy and playful pop track that seeks to bring a unique perspective to the conversation from a part of the world that is often either ignored and/or stereotyped.
Obviously Drona’s background adds a whole new element to the track. In doing some research for this, I actually found out that “first world”=rich countries is actually a misnomer, and it has more to do with location/alliance than anything. Here is a helpful map and brief description from this Quora page:
- “First World – American Influenced, Democratic-Industrial Countries.
- Second World – Eastern part of the Communist Socialist Industrial States.
- Third World – States who have not aligned with any of the above two spheres or simply called Non-aligned Countries.
Being, the leader of the non-aligned movements, India always described as the ‘Third world country’. It never means, India is poor.
By sharing the above information, I want to call out, being an economic giant “India should still be called as 3rd world country”.
India had and will have so many gains, by maintaining this ‘Non-aligned Movement’. India will still be called as 3rd world country in years to come.”
I think the beauty in the fact that that Quora page is even necessary kind of illustrates a big point in the song and in Drona’s transition. “First World” countries automatically think they are superior. It’s easy to call to mind our loving President’s “shithole countries” comments from a few months back (or weeks?, years? time doesn’t really operate like normal under this president).
Let’s let Drona’s lyrics wrap this whole thing up shall we?
“So tell me what you want what you really really want
A villa on the french riviera with a Yatch or a plane – whichever’s more expensive
Houses in New York, and London, and Paris
Lovers from places that you can’t imagine
Thinking of all this is making me tired ugh
The struggle is real
We can’t get enough
Of their shiny stuff
I guess I can’t remember
When I had
So much to have
And they make us laugh
With all their fake feuds fake news ”
-Caleb