Penelope Scott’s “Rät” Lyrics Meaning

As far as popular music goes, Penelope Scott’s “Rät” is bit of a complex song put forth by a young lady who is obviously an intellectual. Or rather, let’s say that the singer implies that at some point in her life she studied computer science and things of the such. This is revealed in the lyrics, where she also lets it be known that she admires tech entrepreneurs. 

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Penelope Scott's Rät at Lyrics.org.

In fact even more incredulous than all of the above is the fact that Rät is indeed an diss track against SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Or rather let’s say it is more akin to a love-hate song. For it is made abundantly clear Penelope was at some point in her life smitten by the business magnate. This was due largely to what he represented to her, someone who wanted to advance the entire race, as opposed to who he actually was. In fact as she became more familiar with Elon, she realized that he is indeed a businessman, i.e. someone who wants to use his innovations for profit. And as such, said innovations are only accessible to a few, i.e. those who can afford them. And basically coming to this reality has shattered her world, since she always idolized and emulated such individuals.  Now she is basically taking out her anger by dissing them, once again using Musk as their personification.

Release Date of “Rät”

Penelope Scott dropped this song, which she wrote and produced herself, on 31 August 2020. And it is from her 2020 EP Public Void.

Concerning the name of the track, it is actually the shortened from of its original title, which is Elongated Muskrat.

What Is the Meaning of “Elongated Muskrat” as Used in Penelope Scott’s “Rät” Song?

Elongated Muskrat is a less-than-flattering appellation that has bestowed upon tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Its origin dates back to a Twitter user jokingly bestowing the moniker upon him in 2014. And since then, some people have falsely said that his actual brithname is in fact Elongated Muskrat. And this being the internet and all, the prank became so pervasive that many individuals started to actually believe that such was his real name.

The logical reason for all of this is because Mr. Musk is a businessman whose celebrity transcends the business world. In other words, he’s a lot more popular than your average CEO. Or stated otherwise, it’s quite common to come across his name in gossip columns and on social media, with people oft trolling him and criticizing the things that he does.  So perhaps it was inevitable that eventually he’d earn some type of internet-based nickname.

NOTE: In early 2021, Musk became the richest man in the world with a net worth of over $185bn.

Who Is Penelope Scott?

Penelope Scott is an American singer and songwriter who hails from Salem, Oregon. She is one of those new breed of artists who has been able to build a name for herself via social media as opposed to relying on a record label. More specifically, she owes her rise to fame to becoming a star via TikTok. And she dropped her first actual EP in 2019 with the four-track Goblin Hours. But Penelope has been especially active in 2020 releasing two more EPs, Junkyard and Public Void, as well as her first full-length, The Junkyard 2.  And for the record, 2020 is also the year the young lady has just turned 20 years old.

In terms of her musical persona, she is known as being what some have described as an “angry” artist. That is to say that she critically and vehemently addresses a number of different issues, such as the US healthcare system and the habitual mistreatment of women. In fact her most-famous song as of the onset of 2021, Rät, serves as not only a diss track against Elon Musk but more importantly a criticism of the use of technological development for profit. In other words, Penelope Scott has proven to be an intellectual singer also.

136 Responses

  1. ..Unknown.. says:

    omg i feel really bad for her. And that’s sad to know that the amazing things Elon and many others have done was just for profit 🙁 I don’t think I was meant to know this at age 13…

    • Unknown Speaker says:

      Exactly 😕

    • Anonymous says:

      LOL SAME

    • Anonymous says:

      i mean, it’s not a secret

    • just some kid says:

      I knew all this at 10 years old!

    • Random kid says:

      Omg, same. I used to be love elon musk but after i know this 😐

    • big brains says:

      i- chile ofc it is the whole world is just a pyramid scheme to make everyone fight against eachother for resources or for the higher affluent (richer) people to come on top of everyone else and basically runs the world. and for this fact, ofc he uses is for profit there are few people in the business industry that truly want to help the world. all the more expensive things is just for once again affluent people to buy to demonstrate to the lower classes and poor people that they are better, which is untrue but they make themselves feel better by that way. and this song is he smartest song ive ever heard! true royalty lyrics.

    • Anonymous says:

      I KNEW IT!!

    • Anonymous says:

      Elon hasn’t done anything amazing, he buys the rights to other people’s amazing work with his family money that came from literal child slavery.

      • Anonymous says:

        I am in no way at all an Elon stan — I actually hate the guy’s guts — but this is an oversimplification to the point that it just isn’t really true. At all. There are a ton of valid things to criticize him for but he and his company have done a ton of unique research and engineering. And there is no actual proof that the child slavery thing is true… at all.

        Critique him for being a terrible capitalist that treats his workers like crap and who has an ego the size of jupiter, not for vague slander.

      • u r a dumbass says:

        none of that is true. not a single thing you wrote there is true. get off tiktok go touch grass retard

        • Anonymous says:

          damn, your username is SO original, but i really do think you should stop talking to yourself. Talking to yourself will draw other people away, and frankly you already draw enough people away. What you should do is, get your head out of your ass and go make some friends:)

        • Anon says:

          Elon is exclusively into platinum blonde white women, please stop defending him, he’s not going to sleep with you. Also, what they said is, in fact, true. How about you go touch some newspaper?

          • Anonymous says:

            what is this 1970? who looks at a newspaper???????

          • Anonymous says:

            Elon has children with the singer, Grimes, through surrogate, as she is a lesbian. There’s more than meets the eye to Elon. All of the hate and criticism must mean he pissed off the wrong Edison. Space was filmed in a Hollywood Basement – Red Hot Chili Peppers. His dad worked for nASA… think he might know something u don’t?

        • no says:

          exactly what i was gonna say to you

        • Anonymous says:

          Why? Why are you so angry about some famous rich dude? Why must you call someone a mildly offensive word that has nothing to do with the situation? You’re either drunk or 6 years old. Hopefully just drunk.

        • Anonymous says:

          imagine using the R slur in 2022, that’s how u know they have no friends.

      • Anonymous says:

        yeah no. that’s defo an oversimplification. he got most of his money from when he sold one of the most used online payment methods. yk he created paypal right? yes his family did have money but he did in fact make something brilliant. I’m in no way an elon stan but like gotta give credit where its due. then after he sold paypal , he bought other companies and bought other ppls ideas. so yes oversimplification

    • Anonymous says:

      everything in this world is money and power…thats life make money or die trying

    • panlover says:

      i never knew what she talking about but i feel bad and i was just listening to this in my bakugou kinnie playist

    • The Cringe King says:

      well duh as 13 yr old myself it seems pretty obvious I mean how do you think he got rich? he didn’t just get it all with the intent of helping the world a lot of it was for his own benefit like look at the sheer amount of ex’s he has that should be a red. flag on its own

    • Not a child, well, not chronologically says:

      It is a good thing that this singer uses all of her money to feed the poor? Come on. He isn’t a demon, just a rich guy who uses his money as he wishes…like anyone here would do any different. Hating celebs is just an excuse to create anger out of thin air. Just laugh along with us all…

      • Anonymous says:

        The sheer amount of CO2 and other pollution and problems he causes. The many launches, the notoriously unsafe tunnels, the cars that require an ungodly amount of rare minerals from developing countries (indirectly leading to stuff like the ‘lithium coup’ in Bolivia), and for what? To send people to Mars only to die during transit to radiation? Even if they get there in one piece they’re gonna have the same problem on Mars, the planet barely has an atmosphere mainly made of CO2 which isn’t great. It also does not have a molten core like Earth, and this means no electromagnetic shielding of the planet. The people on Mars would be just as exposed to radiation as they are en route.

        By all means, let the man become a dictator and idolize him as he sets Earth on fire and causes real damage to actual humans in developing countries. He is a conman and a damn good one at that. He is rich because people made him rich, he didn’t do that himself. People believe in his ideas, even though they are not sustainable at best, and simply stupid, dangerous, damaging and irresponsible at worst.

        • elon hater says:

          apply cold water to the surface of the sun burn you just got elon

        • Anonymous says:

          yeah, I don’t know if anyone knows about this, but for people in the comments who don’t know: if a Tesla gets in a car crash, the lithium battery will literally explode and cook you alive on impact, it’s a godamn death sentence.

    • Anonymous says:

      he has something a ltittle less than autism what makes him being something like sociopath

    • no says:

      well why would they have done this things if it wasn’t for profit?? for the “pUbLiC gOoD’?

    • Anonymous says:

      I mean Elon is a genius in the field and has been capable of doing great investments by an economic point of view, so i actually don’t see the problem, living in a capitalistic world is more than understandable using your skills to gain more money’s so you can live a better life, also we don’t have to forget that he is trying to reach mars and the possibility to live there for his own sake since he always said that it has been his big dream. That being said using upper social classes to spend moneys on his tech shit is necessary to gain money’s to invest in space X.

    • Anonymous says:

      you’re 13? bro thats so young uh

      and yeah i feel bad too

    • F the Elongated Muskrat🤬 says:

      I don’t either but when she was like ‘I feel so used’ i agree. I used to look up to Elon, now I really hate him. He’s a ass who needs to actually do what he says he is doing, even though nobody with actual power will confront him about it. Like there was a point in my life where I wanted to work for Musk because I thought he was doing good things, but now all he is to me is a pri-k who can kiss the thought of actually having someone really love him goodbye.

      My opinion pls don’t come at me, just stating something that some people see too.

    • _Devon_Le_Gay_hates Elongated Muskrat. says:

      I mean, I’m older than that and yet my parents thought I needed to erase this from my memory- But it’s also not really a secret.

  2. :p says:

    I think I have to agree with her like our meaning isn’t to profit off of every thing we have
    It’s to enjoy it

  3. Anonymous says:

    i thought it was about her growing up in a cult-

  4. I like the song gomenne cause it shows how kids are treated says:

    This song makes me cry

  5. kageyamas milk says:

    but like this song is a pure bop

  6. Dinkadare(go watch my twitch) says:

    I also thought this was a cult thing or something man

  7. Anonymous says:

    I’m sorry but if you think that people like Elon musk don’t do these things for profit your pretty naive

  8. Anonymous says:

    Saw this song on a meme. At first I didn’t think much of it..but I’m not sure if I can look at it the same-

  9. Child says:

    Realizing what is going on the world sucks, being aware at 13 SUCKS. being aware of how evil and selfish people like Elon Musk can really exist, really blows.

  10. Save my brain cells says:

    My brain cells hurt-

  11. Anonymous says:

    Yea he is building this empire for profit duhh, but it’s still advancing the world like the old oil regime never would have allowed. So why does he not deserve the profit? That’s like saying you will build a home for someone but expect nothing in return. Utter nonsense

    • Anonymous says:

      “Advancing the world” is apparently equivalent to “Ruthless exploitation of brand new technologies” now…

      Advancement would be doing something different. Exploitation is applying the same mentalities to new fields.

      • Anonymous says:

        I feel like it’s both advancement and exploitation at the same time. No reason that it has to just be one.

        • Small child that is pissed off says:

          I’m 11 and I’m participating in protests for climate change BECASUE GOD DANM ELON MUSK keeps emitting so much c02 from the SpaceX rocket launches????

    • Happy DM says:

      Because his profits are unintelligible, unsustainable, and come at a cost. He makes his money by screwing people.

      It’s like building someone a house and demanding all their current and future wealth as payment.

  12. no says:

    this song slaps

  13. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ says:

    I feel bad.

  14. imnotstraightenoughforthis says:

    it’s the fact that so many things are run by rich white men
    ugh
    gross
    things would be so much better if people used their brains for once

  15. random says:

    i thought it was about a breakup-

  16. genius says:

    I honestly love this song and it’s catchy, If you look on genius she quotes ¨ I don’t really know elon musk like that¨ and during the whole genius video she doesn’t really mention elon musk but she does in the start. So she also said that ¨this song is really about being complicit and things that you later regret part of that is kinda deal with then sense that you feel stupid for being evolved and nobody made you do when you were little so how would you know¨ and she did mention tesla and she doesn’t really talk about elon musk. and you guys are over here saying yall feel bad for her and i see your guys sides i guess.

  17. just a pretty girl with a shot glass!! says:

    elon musk probably smells like cheese. a bad cheese. not a good cheese.

  18. rip that pu--y AYYYYYY says:

    yall mad pressed in the comments LMAOAOAO SORRY

  19. Da weeb says:

    Am i the only one when she said ” i ate the apple because i loved you” think about killing stalking-

    Just me?
    K.

    • Anonymous says:

      its a metaphor for Adam and Eve. She ate the apple (knowledge) because she thought it was for the greater good.

  20. Da weeb says:

    I’m sorry but am i the only weeb that thought of killing stalking when listening to this?

    Just me…. K.

  21. floppaannonymous says:

    lol this song inspired me to write a book about experimented rats in a fallout like scene

  22. E says:

    I thought it was about a girl who grew up in a laboratory who was tested on and she wanted to be like them until something bad happened and she realized that they weren’t so good people-

  23. In class right now says:

    Let’s be real here. Everyone here is a minor

  24. "P0et" is my persona says:

    Definitely got cult,killing,stalking,break up vibes glad t know I’m not the only one. I usually read the song lyrics to try to figure it out before researching or asking somebody. I was clueless looked up and…..WOW.
    But after reading this its like I have different point of view on technology and a ton of other stuff.

    I just wanted to know the meaning not get a different perception of reality🥲

  25. Anonymous says:

    I mean there is a shockingly little amount of people who do good for the sake of being good so are yall really that suprised

  26. Bakudeku stan says:

    I’m like seven and i skipped a few grades but like damn this song is great for a diss track

  27. Anonymous says:

    why is everybody on here 13

  28. ranboo says:

    this song is great. singing it constantly. i also thought it was about a lab rat girl

  29. Alex says:

    This is my favorite song. I’m listening to it now. I didn’t know this is what Rät meant.

  30. human says:

    I imagined it as kinda like the actual meaning and i really love this artist she is SO underrated! This song would make a mcyt eggpire animatic.

  31. Quandale Dingle says:

    Anyone that feels for Penelope Scott is so naive and ignorant…. Obviously Elon musk needs profit to run a business and to function in general, never mind innovate and literally make more progress than the government in the space travel field. Profit doesn’t mean that he isn’t passionate about innovation and what he does. In fact if Penelope even did a little bit of research she could see that if Elon only cared about money he could have called it a day and lived extremely lavishly for his entire life after selling PayPal, but rather started Tesla and nearly went broke before it was even profitable… the song doesn’t even make sense, she complains about being “used” when no one used her for anything and her intellectual pursuits if anything will benefit her more in life either way. Have you ever wondered why Penelope Scott sings? I’ll tell you this much: she earns money!!!!!!! Crazy don’t ya think? Maybe her and Elon aren’t too different after all…

    • name says:

      first off, to thrive on this earth your gonna need money. she also published this from HER opinion, so if she feels used from thinking elon was great when he has actually done deep stuff like child slavery and polluting the earth from the harmful substances in the Tesla then thats her problem. if you listen to the song it also seems she belived in elon for a long time before she found out about the stuff he does thats why she feels “used” or betrayed.

  32. just another sad kid says:

    i always thought it was about elon musk, but i thought she was elon’s kid. but also WHO NAMES THEIR KID AFTER A COMPUTER??????

  33. p3rs0n says:

    Ok. Yes he is a questionable person. But he has done some amazing things. Like how he helped out Ukraine by sending Starlink satellite internet terminals there after the Russian invasion? That’s remarkable. SpaceX made significant innovations and advancements in getting things and people into space? Spectacular. I mean, his dreams alone have had a positive global impact. His car company Tesla has globally reduced vehicle emissions. Because of Musk, analysts now believe that over half the cars sold by 2040 will be electric. I’m not saying this makes him a good person or anything of the sort or defending him, I agree he is awful. But the man is a genius and has really helped the world.

  34. Anonymous says:

    Elongated muskrat lol. Theres so much depth

  35. elongated muskrat sucks says:

    Elongated muskrat lol

  36. _Devon_Le_Gay_hates Elongated Muskrat. says:

    I myself love her music. My best friend loves her music. My friend likes the wording and she just found out about the meaning. I knew only part of this. But I definitely think that Mr. “Elongated Muskrat” or also known as ugly ol Elon Musk the bitch, can go fuck himself. He seems to love himself and that’s all. Now, I may be only a teenager, but even I know some things. Also, I’ve been laughing for the past ten minutes because of the Elongated Muskrat. like- LMFAO. But yeah, I actually study arts, so I have to know how to use the computers and stuff to digitalize it. I understand the interest and then finding out the person you may or may not idolize is actually a major asswhole.

  37. Leo the sagittarius says:

    My best friend actually looks at that man as a role model- H.E.L.P ;-;”

  38. Eso says:

    Why are so Many People so f* stupid. She never mentions Elon Musk. She talks about the division that occurred between Thomas Edison and the greed and big business stealing ideas from the little guy versus the opposite in Nikola Tesla. (Tesla was a person you uneducated idiots). She also essentially describes how the world has fallen into thae trapped mindset that has resulted from it. AWESOME SONG

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