Young and the Hateful: Baby Blue The Poem

The song “Baby Blue” by Action Bronson ft. Chance the Rapper is from the album, Mr. Wonderful. The song Baby Blue is a song about a bad break up between a guy and a girl. The couple has a lot of trust issues and gets mad at each other a lot. The diction used throughout the song emphasizes the pain the guy feels. The song highlights the pain the guy feels and the process he is going through to move on from his ex-girlfriend.

In the hook when Action says, “Baby girl I’m blue,” the color blue is a symbol for his sadness throughout the song. The color blue is in the title and it is the last actual word you hear before the song ends. His sadness lasts from beginning to the end of the song.

In the 3rd verse, Chance talks about all the misfortunes he wishes upon the girl who broke his heart. He says, “I hope your dreams dry out like raisins in the baking sun” he makes an allusion to Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem.” On the surface, he hopes that her dreams dry out like raisins and never work out. Deeper down he hopes that maybe her dreams do turn around and seem possible like in Hughes’ poem where he says, “crust over like a sugary sweet.” Then in the end, all Chance really wants is the explosion that throws her dreams into turmoil. A similar feeling he had when they ended the relationship.

A few lines later Chance says, “I hope you never get off Fridays / and you work at a Friday’s that’s always busy on Fridays.” In this case of irony, Chance hopes that this girl never has Fridays off and she is forced to work at a TGI Fridays and watch everyone have fun and enjoy his or her Friday while she works. Having to do that every Friday would be very depressing and it goes to show how deep seeded Chance’s anger is for this girl. 

Later on in the same stanza, Chance makes an allusion to the Biblical story, Samson and Delilah. He says, “cut my losses, how Delilah changed my locks to a fade.” In the story Samson has supernatural strength and confesses to his love Delilah that if someone cuts his hair he loses his strength. Later that night Delilah betrays him and he is captured, blinded and eventually killed. Chance is alluding to the fact that since this girl betrayed him, he has felt weak and near death. His pain connects to the deep sadness Action feels with the color blue.