“Don’t Look Down” by Tom MacDonald

Comprehensively speaking, “Don’t Look Down” is Tom MacDonald’s relatively-lengthy version of a braggadocios rap. But considering that this is Tom MacDonald, an artist who commonly makes controversial and countercultural statements, as well as “Don’t Look Down” being an extended, five-verse piece, perhaps the best approach would be if we tried breaking it down verse-by-verse while omitting the redundancies.

Chorus

From the onset, i.e. the chorus, it appears that the tone Tom is trying to set is enlightening the listener to the fact that despite being successful, he is still dealing with a number of serious internal, psychological issues. 

Verse 1

But that established, at the beginning of the first verse he asserts that such will never destroy him, as it may have some others. So it seems the point MacDonald is trying to make is that yes, he does indeed have a “mental illness”. But since he’s been dealing with such his entire life, it’s not like now he’s going to let it get the best of him.

The vocalist also uses the latter part of the first verse to acknowledge his haters, i.e. those who damn him in the name of propagating their own popularity. And his message to such individuals is basically like he’s ignoring them.

Verse 2

Meanwhile, the opening of the second verse illustrates why we couldn’t just simply summarize this song in one paragraph. For Tom MacDonald is in fact one of the most-unique personalities in the rap game, i.e. “the White guy everybody wanted to cancel”. And along that same frame of thought, he even goes on to refer to himself as “the greatest since old Slim Shady”.

But we’re not even going to focus on that “old” adjective. Rather what MacDonald is really trying to get to is that on top of both he and Eminem being White, like Slim Shady he is also a rapper who says what he feels, no matter how potentially offensive. 

But again, overall this is not your quintessential Tom MacDonald song. So as opposed to actually demonstrating his don’t give AF-ness as usual, the rapper instead uses most of the verse to depict himself as someone who is brave and successful. 

And such is the theme of this entire piece actually, being premised on the notion that the level of success he’s achieved is inherently frightening or intimidating. Therefore he ‘doesn’t look down’, like a person afraid of heights who is up in a high place. Thus the motif of the song features the artist making metaphorical references to heights and what have you in that regard.

Bridge

In the bridge it would appear Tom is once again bringing it to his haters when he asserts “f–k… every single one of you”. What he is once again putting forth is that he doesn’t even notice his detractors, considering that he “don’t look down” from his lofty position and all. 

And yes, to some degree it is a bit of a contradictory statement to declare that you’re not thinking about a particular group of people while at the same time dropping a song addressed to them.

But we feel where Tom is coming from, having borne witness to some of the insensitive backlash he’s been victim to of late. 

Verses 3, 4 and 5

And it is reasonable to conclude that such individuals, i.e. his haters, have compelled him to unconventionally drop a track themed almost entirely on his own greatness. And why? Because it is such individuals, apparently, that he continues to address in the third and fourth verses. And in the latter he calls out “YouTube rappers” who actually believe they possess the same standing as him. 

But MacDonald proceeds to illustrate that in fact they do not. For example, they don’t pay “a million cash for… taxes” like he does. Also they don’t come out with anthems, i.e. hit songs, as Tom does, being “the biggest independent rapper in the… world”. 

And we must admit that whereas his may not be a name you regularly come across in mainstream music publications, MacDonald does have the tendency to regularly top internet-based song charts, even with this song.

By this juncture we’ve only gotten about halfway through this nearly eight-minute piece, with quite a bit of additional bragging left untouched. However, this is where the aforenoted redundancies come into play, so delving deeper into the fourth and fifth verses would be sort of like repeating ourselves. 

Finally

But that said, let it be known that Tom MacDonald doesn’t have any actual celebrity feuds at the moment. So with that in mind, we can summarize all of this by concluding that there are three main ideas he wants to get across.

First is that his haters can’t hang. Secondly, the reason they can’t hang is because he is a lot more successful than they are – so much so in fact that he doesn’t even need to regard them. And lastly, the reason Tom has been able to maintain at such a high level, despite external distractions and internal “demons”, is because of his exceptional inner resolve.

Facts about “Don’t Look Down”

As usual, this Tom McDonald track was written and produced by the vocalist himself. And truth be told, he is perhaps the most poppin’ independent artist or rapper in the very least of the last couple of years. 

For instance, being released on 2 July 2021, “Don’t Look Down” swiftly went on to top Amazon’s Best Sellers in Rap & Hip Hop Songs listing. Furthermore, it soared towards the summit of iTunes’ Top 40 US Hip-Hop Tracks. In doing so, it bested better known artists such as Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion.

Additionally the official music video to this song also managed to attract over 1,000,000 YouTube views within 24 hours of being posted.

Tom MacDonald

Tom MacDonald is a rapper from Canada, currently being 32 years old, who we regularly cover in this blog. Concerning the recent backlash he experienced as referenced earlier, that was as a result of MacDonald purchasing an Eminem instrumental in May of 2021. 

He proceeded to drop a song entitled “Dear Slim” with it anyway, despite some fans of Eminem actually boycotting said track.

But that said, Tom, as noted, has been successful at his craft. For instance, he bought said instrumental (along with other Slim Shady merchandise) for a whopping $100,000. 

And considering that he makes lyrical comments – pertaining to race, the government, etc. – that ruffles people’s feathers, he has more or less grown accustomed to backlash. In fact MacDonald often references such in song as sort of a badge of pride.