What does "Hope For The Underrated Youth" by YUNGBLUD mean?

Music Video and Lyrics Meaning

Dominic Harrison, or better known as Yungblud, has just released the official music video for “Hope For The Underrated Youth”, a song from his coming EP Underrated Youth, which will be released on the 11th of October.

Yungblud talked a bit about the EP saying:

i wanted this project to amplify a world consumed with unjustified hate where the common denominator of the people i have met is the constant fight, hope, unity, desire for equality and intelligence embedded inside our heads.

When it was first released over a month ago, I thought that the song itself was emotional enough, but the music video just delivered the message so perfectly, which made it even more emotional and touching.

Yungblud had this to say about the song on Twitter:

this song is about freedom of speech. this song is about freedom of expression. there is hope for this “underrated youth” and i believe the future looks bright because we are in it.

Music Video Meaning

We see Dom and a lot of young adults and teens; they’re just living their life, all looks okay; but one of them shows that he has a gun hidden in his jeans to one of his friends, which seems like a bad thing because his friend tells him to hide it back; these two guys go to an empty space and start shooting glass bottles with the gun; and Dom hears them and rushes to them starting a little fight, saying that this is wrong, he even takes the gun out of the boy’s hand and throw it away on the ground.

In the next scene, we see Dom and what appears to be his girlfriend in the music video; they’re sitting there chilling, he’s listening to music, then they just talk and chat about stuff; when all of a sudden, Dom hears a gunshot again; but this time he sees older men wearing like “forces uniform”;' they're holding like semi auto shotguns and rifles; and they are moving between the long grass, running towards the youngsters; so Dom and the girl ran to alert the other guys and they all look afraid and distressed.
The police or the older men get to the kids and point the guns to them; while the kids are holding their hands up and shouting that it’s okay, they’re peaceful and nothing should be a problem; except that the guy with the gun earlier, starts reaching out for his small gun; and because of that move, all hell breaks loose, the men in the uniform open fire on all of the kids; but Dom and few friends get behind cars to take shelter; he tried to calm his girlfriend down, then took a white flag, which is a sign of surrender and peace; but even then, the men shot him a few times… The End.

Yeah, so sad and sadly accurate for what goes on in the world nowadays; sometimes it only takes one man’s mistake to have the whole group punished; and of course this music video is a great representation on gun laws, and gun violence in the US; and I think it’s safe to say that a lot of the youth are not for the current gun laws; they unfortunately go through situations that can be prevented with better gun laws and whatnot. Anyway, let’s jump into the lyrics, so we can get a deeper look into the song and the message that Yungblud has.

Verse One

If I left today
Would you wait for me or would you throw us all away?
Like the magazines say

So here he’s talking to the older generation; he’s asking if they care enough for him that they’ll wait; and not discard his, the teens, and the young adults’ opinions.

Should I go right away?
Cut all of my hair off, and change my second name?
From a juvenile state

He is asking if he should get a haircut and if he should change his second name, or if he should change his appearance to look older; maybe only then the older generations would take him seriously; maybe he will finally have a voice, and the elders will hear what he has to say; and that of course is not only applicable to him personally, but it’s more about the battle between different generations; most of Gen X doesn’t take millennials and Gen Z seriously, nor do they care about their future; so maybe changing his name “from a juvenile state” would change things for him.

Pre-Chorus

And just take my heart out
That'd make it better
I won't be sorry
Better late than never
Just take my heart out
That'd make it better
Hidin' all my feelings but I know that I'm not dreaming

Dom is basically asking the older generations, parents, teachers, and people in authority, to “take his heart out”; he wants them to try and know what he really feels and believes in; he wishes that they can reach out; because our generation usually feels alone, like no one understand us; and to him it is “better late than never”; he’s wishing for this to happen, because he’s still hiding all of his true feelings and all of the struggles he goes through.

Chorus

'Cause there's hope for the underrated youth

This line is basically what the whole song is about; maybe even what Yungblud is about; he believes in the kids, teens, and young adults, the ones who are going to shape the future. He is saying that there is hope for us; and that we are underrated; because our generation has internet, technology, international friends and relationships, and amount of resources and information that no other generation before us had; we are underrated because we’re growing up faster and smarter; we’re skeptical, scientific, and creative.

And I'm so far from telling you the truth
'Cause you keep on pulling me down, pulling me down, pulling me down
Yeah there's hope for the underrated youth

Again, with the “no one understands me” theme; which is a real thing that happens usually because parents or elders don’t believe the young kids; they usually don’t think that their feelings or struggles are as real or as big of a deal, so they “pull them down” with the neglecting comments; which leads to more hiding and more separation between the generations.

Verse Two

Every day is an episode
I pick and mix with self-control
My head won't let me go like if I died you'd never know

It’s an interesting use of the word episode; because in psychiatry, an episode is a chunk of one’s life; which could be short like hours, or long like weeks, or months; and usually it’s a time when the person is affected be a mental health problem that they have, like bipolar disorder for example. So maybe he meant that because a lot of our generation are suffering from depressive episodes, manic episodes, or something like that; or he simply means that life and history has been repeating itself a lot, and everyday just feels like the day before; there is no real change happening in the world. The phrase “my head won’t let me go” is so relatable to a lot of people who suffer from ADHD, ADD, OCD, Bipolar disorder depression, anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, and a lot more mental illnesses; it’s that feeling you get when you’re in your head, thinking a lot of feeling trapped; basically, it’s not a nice feeling, you know?

I made friends with the dark parts that are inside of my mind
I tie them up till they come up spiking juvenile rhymes
And my eyes are about to blow
But that's all part of this freak show

This is what a lot of new and young artists do; they try to understand themselves, and they try to get familiar with the “dark parts” in their minds; they use the pain and the stress to make art; they write about depression and anxiety, they sing about suicide; and it’s all part of their self discovery and it’s actually therapeutic, for both the songwriter and the listener; knowing that you’re not suffering alone is really nice sometimes.

My personality got fucked up by the Adderall

Dominic has been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder); he talks about that a lot; and one of the most famous stimulant drugs prescribed for ADHD patients is Adderall; he also mentioned Ritalin which is another medication for ADHD in one of his older songs “California”. Apparently he thinks that the medications are kind of shaping him, or they have affected him; he even made a whole song about it called “Medication”

Got called an alien for bein' myself
I ain't got the patience to be someone else

The big identity crisis; we, as youngsters, feel and know who we are; but our families and society sometimes think that we should grow up into these molds that they have for us, that they know and believe are the “right choice”; but Yungblud says here that he doesn’t have the patience to pretend, he’s just going to be himself.

Bridge

If I die, would you cry?
Or would you come and bury me alive?
If I die, would you cry?
Or would you come and bury me alive?
If I die, would you cry?
Or would you come and bury me alive?
If I die, would you cry?
Would you come and bury me alive?
(Would you come and bury me alive?)

He’s asking a metaphorical question here; and to be completely honest, almost everyone I know have asked themselves this question before, especially if they are or have suffered from depression; “If I die, would you miss me? Would you even care?”; humans want to be remembered, want to be loved, and valued. So Yungblud is asking whether that others will remember him and if they’ll cry because of his death; maybe it’s a natural death, or maybe it represents the suicidal thoughts that he or others have sometimes; either way, will others care enough? Or are they annoyed by him (or us in general), and they would gladly “bury me alive?”; they don’t care a bit, they’d even want him gone. It is a big and kind of an emotional question, because everyone wants to feel loved and important, let alone not feel rejected and unloved.

So yeah, this was the explanation for Yungblud’s “Hope For The Underrated Youth”; I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I highly recommend you’d go and check out the music video for yourself; and let me know if you relate to what he says, or if you agree with the statement, that there’s hope for the underrated youth.