Tom MacDonald’s “Clown World” Lyrics Meaning

“Clown World” is the title of a song released by noted Canadian rapper and songwriter Tom MacDonald.

Now stateside, Tom has been perhaps the most controversially-vocal artist as far as an equally-controversial year, 2020, is concerned. His shtick, if you will, is criticizing what constitutes political correctness and the established social norms of said era. 

And he’s at it once again in “Clown World”. In fact the concept the title is based on is “the world (being) full of clowns”, i.e. people who ‘paint’ themselves happy even though it’s all a façade. Or delving deeper into the lyrics it can said that a “clown” is someone who blindly goes along with the standards of the day. The clown does this even though he or she knows that they are wrong, hypocritical or are doing what they do (i.e. via peer pressure).

And once again in regards to 2020 in particular, one of his main lyrical targets has been the Black Lives Matter movement. He has addressed it on tracks prior. And this time around he’s basically asserting the same unspoken notion, that said crusade is racist. 

All Lives Matter

Or as he puts it, “all lives matter”, not just those of Blacks. In fact the rapper takes on the role of a conspiracy theorist in the pre-chorus. And as a conspiracy theorist, he supports a widely-held albeit underground belief that the powers-that-be are using campaigns such as Black Lives Matter to ‘set up a civil war’. 

But even beyond that, he thinks it’s whimsical that some people would actually get offended that he and others rather support the “All Lives Matter” as opposed to “Black Lives Matter” movement. Or stated comprehensively, it can be said that he believes powerful entities are actually propagating hate based on race.

Two Genders and Mass Hypocrisy

He also addresses what is an even hotter topic as of the onset of 2021, which is gender roles and mainstream unisexualization. And Tom, once again against the political norm of the times, assets that he “believe(s) in two genders”. This is not to say that he is a homophobe, just as the ideas mentioned in the previous paragraph are not based on him being racist. 

Rather he is exercising his right to free speech, so to speak. And he does so by putting forth his personal principles, even though he knows that the masses have been socialized not to agree with these opinions.

Moreover, one of MacDonald’s favorite talking points has been the concept of mass hypocrisy, and he doesn’t let up here. For instance, the vocalist finds it amusing – for lack of a better word – how people had issues with former President Trump building a border wall, yet the selfsame individuals build fences around their homes. 

He also puts forth that if “Jesus was alive” today, he would be the victim of cancel culture, i.e. being ostracized for saying things which the masses don’t agree with.

In Conclusion

And there are so many of the above arguments that he is making throughout, Tom MacDonald style. But what it all ultimately boils down to, once again going back to the title, is the rapper deeming the mainstream masses as being borderline comical. 

Indeed under his estimation, it is hard to take anyone seriously who contradicts themselves and who is not able to see the big picture. And what is this big picture? Based on Tom’s own understanding, it is that we are all being played. And at the end of the day, the vocalist refuses to associate with such individuals.

Facts about “Clown World”

Within a day of being released “Clown World” managed to reach the number one position on the Hip-Hop/Rap Sales Chart hosted by iTunes. It also made it to third place on the platform’s general, all-genre listing.

The official music video to the song has proven accordingly popular, amassing approximately 2,000,000 views via YouTube within a 48-hour time frame.

As with virtually all of his singles, Tom wrote and produced “Clown World” himself.

While promoting this song on Twitter, Tom featured three fictional clowns in the background. These clowns are as follows:

• Ronald McDonald (of McDonald’s restaurant fame)
• Pennywise (from the horror movie It)
• The Joker (as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger)

The one real-life person he also included in the lot is fellow rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, insinuating that Tekashi too is a “clown”.  As of the release date of the song, Tom and Tekashi don’t have any beef the public is aware of. But that being said, it’s noteworthy to mention that 6ix9ine has been the target of other White rappers (such as PewDiePie and Eminem) circa early-2021.

This is actually MacDonald’s third single for the year 2021. His first was hit song entitled “Fake Woke“.

Summary of “Clown World”

All in all, MacDonald uses this song to tackle cancel culture, the BLM movement and political correctness.