GRITS (Feat. TobyMac) – Ooh Ahh (My Life Be Like)

Rap/Hop hop artist GRITS is a duo that began with DC Talk.  Stacey “Coffee” Jones and Teron “Bonafide” Carter were former dancers as part of DC Talk’s live concerts.  They became active as GRITS in 1995, releasing 11 albums and 2 EP’s, including:

• Mental Releases (1995)
• Factors of the Seven (1998)
• Grammatical Revolution (1999)
• The Art of Translation (2002)
• Ooh Ahh EP (2003)
• Dichotomy A (2004)
• Dichotomy B (2004)
• 7 (Seven) (2006)
• Redemption (2006)
• Heeyy EP (2006)
• Reiterate (2008)
• Quarantine (2010)
• Saints & Sinners (2017)

They won a Dove in 2005 for Rap/Hip-Hop Recorded Song of the Year for their song Hittin’ Curves.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Grits-ooh-aah-my-life-be-like-lyrics.

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1. What message does the song communicate?

GRITS’ primary message is about the reality of spiritual warfare in several, cleverly poetic contrasts.  Yes, as Christians, we are saved by the sacrifice and blood of Jesus, but we still struggle with our past.  We all want intimacy with God, but to get there seems a monstrous task.

GRITS spends time alone with God, reflecting on their past, but grinning because God is with them.  They pray for God to help them win their war with murmurs more extensive than human language.

Finally, TobyMac enters the scene and speaks of the bride of Christ, the coming Kingdom of God, and that when we seek Jesus, He is, like car mirrors often state, closer than He appears.  Yet, the struggle is real.

Score: 10/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

All of it agrees with God’s inspired Word.

[Intro]

Lines 1-8: This is a feeding-frenzy for Casper the friendly ghost!

On a more serious note, the indecipherable “ooh ahh” is akin to the deep groanings that words cannot express (Romans 8:26).  This interpretation is confirmed in Verse 2’s last two lines.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: GRITS is in distress, asking for rescue in their times of trouble.

Line 3: The concept of bread crumbs comes from the famous story Hansel and Gretel, where these two individuals left crumbs so that if they strayed, they could find their way back home.  In the same way, God left us with His Word, the Bible, that is useful to guide us to righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16–17) and the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8) if we sin.  If we listen to Scripture and the Spirit, we come back to the path that leads to the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13 and Luke 13:24).

Line 4: That is, GRITS trusts in the finished work of Christ, who paid for their lawbreaking (Isaiah 53:1-12, Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 1:29, John 3:16, John 19:30, Acts 4:12, Acts 20:28, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:3-4, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:14, 1 Timothy 2:6, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 9:26, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1-2, and Revelation 5:9).

Line 5: Touch with fingertips is associated with intimacy between lovers.  GRITS wishes to return to intimacy with God.

Lines 6-8: Describes internal warfare between sinful and righteous pursuit (Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 7:14-25, Ephesians 6:12-17, and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

[Verse 1]

Lines 1-7: GRITS finds solitude peaceful because they can thank God for areas where God helped them separate from past lawbreaking; their past that gripped them.  They are following Jesus’ example to pray alone (Matthew 14:1-13, Matthew 26:29, Matthew 26:42, Mark 6:30-32, Mark 14:36, Luke 4:1-2, Luke 4:14-15, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12-13, Luke 22:39-44, and John 18:11).  They are enjoying this experience.

Lines 8-12: See commentary on Chorus, lines 6-8.

Line 13: GRITS repents for their behavior, trusting God to save them (Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, Luke 24:47, Acts 2:36-38, Acts 3:19-21, Acts 20:21, and 2 Timothy 2:25-26).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-9: In several contrasting examples, GRITS communicates a life before Christ and the abundant life found by trusting in Jesus (Romans 6:1-11, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11, and 1 Peter 2:24).  They are washed by the blood of Jesus; cleansed to righteousness (Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 Peter 1:18-19), yet, still struggling with their past (see commentary on Chrous, lines 6-8).  This is part of GRITS’ self-reflection in solitude that began in Verse 1.

Line 10-12: GRITS prays to God for help with groans too deep for words.  See commentary on Intro, lines 1-8.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1: More indecipherable words that add to Intro.

Line 2: That is, here comes TobyMac!  “Capitol City” is the District of Columbia, part of the band name that TobyMac started with: DC Talk.

Lines 3 and 4: TobyMac continues to go meta, that he will bring to GRITS’ song eight bars.  Yes, there are eight bars, although the last one is a fade-out using half a bar.  We’ll count it.

Line 5: The church, or the body of believers, is the beautiful bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-32 and Revelation 19:7-9).

Line 6: That is, the Kingdom of God that will one day usurp earthly kingdoms.  It is the Gospel that Jesus taught Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 24:14, Mark 1:14-15, Luke 4:43, and Luke 16:16 and is part of the Lord’s prayer, found in Matthew 6:10.

Lines 7 and 8: Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6).  We won’t have to look that hard because our desire to seek for God comes from Him (1 Samuel 10:9, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 24:7, Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 2:29, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and 2 Corinthians 7:10).

Lines 9-11: See commentary on Chorus, lines 6-8.

[Outro]

Lines 1-12: Repeats the last part of Chorus, line 5 Intro, line 1, several times.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Aside from the whole fingertip thing, which could easily lend to inappropriate thoughts (mine included), there exists explicit references to God and sacrifice, lending to a uniquely Christian interpretation.  If unbelievers don’t understand every reference, that’s OK.  There’s plenty of built-in redundancy to comprehend the gist of GRITS’ overall message of internal struggle, the need for God, and that He helps us conquer our past.

Unless unbelievers studied Christianity, they likely won’t get that Christians are Christ’s bride, that we look forward to a new Kingdom, and that Jesus is the Truth that we seek.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God as the One who saves us from our wicked past, guiding us to Himself through the narrow gate.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

GRITS’ Ooh Ahh (My Life Be Like) is a good song.  It uses clever wordplay to communicate the Christ-follower’s war against self, requesting aid from God while thanking Him for His sacrifice for us.  Washed in His blood, we should spend time alone with God and reflect on our past to learn from it, bringing Him glory.  Unbelievers will find most of this song easy to interpret, except for TobyMac’s bit.  That requires them to know more than Jesus died for sinners to comprehend.

This song is inspirational, but not appropriate for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: Ooh Ahh (My Life Be Like) (listen to the song)

Artist: GRITS (Feat. TobyMac)

Album: The Art of Translation

Genre: Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2002

Duration: 3:54

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Updates:

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  I increased section 1’s score.  This did not affect my overall review.