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Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” Was More Woke Than We Imagined

This interview puts the song in a whole new light.

Since 2007, singer Tay Zonday’s viral sensation “Chocolate Rain” has been viewed over 100 Million times on YouTube. While clearly half of the country has HEARD it, we don’t think anyone has actually LISTENED to it. The teaching assistant at The University of Minnesota had been singing at open mics around Minneapolis when he got the idea to record himself on camera to reach a wider audience. It worked…almost too well.

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His cavernous voice juxtaposed against the whimsical piano melody made his ode to confectionery precipitation quite a spectacle, but it may have overshadowed the song’s rather serious undertones.

“I grew up in a biracial household. My mom is Black and my dad is white. We never referred to each other as ‘Black’ and ‘white.’ So it was a bit of a shock to out into the world as a teenager and there these things and they don’t really speak to my life and who I know human beings to be. I guess overall ‘Chocolate Rain’ was intended as a ballad about institutional racism.”

Watch the full interview in our latest "I Went I Viral" above.

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