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What is this?
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What is this?
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What is this?
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“Outside” is the opening track to Gambino’s album Camp released on November 15th, 2011.
It could be said that this song relates to Plato’s Cave Allegory. CG draws a parallel between the allegory and the modern black experience. In the allegory, when one person escapes the cave and tries to help others escape, those trapped inside refuse to join him or her, because they are scared of what lies out there. CG relates this to his parents' friends who think that CG’s parents “look down on them” when, in reality, his parents simply want to help their loved ones improve their situation. The last verse is then CG experiencing the same struggle with his cousin. He is calling out, trying to bring his cousin out of the cave (“the world saying what you are because you’re young and black”), but receiving only hostility in return.
in Plato’s Cave, he describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. Gambino’s cousin lives in this cave which could be symbolic of the ghetto, poverty, or gang life, and he wants to take him “Outside” this metaphorical cave.