Chop Suey! is a song by System of a Down, released on August 13, 2001, as the first single from their second album, Toxicity (2001). The single earned the band its first Grammy nomination in 2002 for Best Metal Performance. Chop Suey! is often considered the band’s signature song, and its music video has reached one billion views on YouTube. In an interview, the guitarist, Daron Malakian, explained:
“The song is about how we are regarded differently depending on how we pass. Everyone deserves to die. Like, if I were now to die from drug abuse, they might say I deserved it because I abused dangerous drugs. Hence the line, ‘I cry when angels deserve to die”.
The lyrics for the midsection (“Father into your hands I commend my spirit” …) were randomly picked out by the singer, Serj Tankian, from the producer Rick Rubin‘s book collection after Tankian was struggling for ideas.
The song was originally titled either “Suicide” (according to the bassist, Shavo Odadjian) or “Self-Righteous Suicide” (according to Rubin), but the name was changed in response to real or anticipated pushback from Columbia Records.
According to Odadjian, the song title is a wordplay: “Suey” is “suicide”, “chopped” in half. Most pressings of the album include an intro to the track where the singer, Serj Tankian, can faintly be heard saying “we’re rolling ‘Suicide‘” while the drummer, John Dolmayan, is counting the band in.
Tracklist:
- Chop Suey!
- Sugar (Live)
The music video was the band’s first collaboration with the director Marcos Siega, and is set in the parking lot of the Oak Tree Inn motel in Los Angeles, hometown of the band. The members are performing the song on stage, surrounded by approximately 1,500 fans. Editing devices are used to create the effect of the band members “walking through” one another and teleporting on and off the stage. One scene briefly shows Tankian eating chop suey with some fans, the only reference to the title dish in either the song or the video. The video makes use of the SnorriCam technique, in which an actor will have a camera attached to them with a harness, making it appear as though the background is moving and the actor is stationary. In the middle of the video, the Armenian Flag can be seen. The video reached one billion views on YouTube in November 2020.
System of a Down
Serj Tankian: vocals, keyboards, samples
Daron Malakian: guitars, vocals
Shavo Odadjian: bass
John Dolmayan: drums
