View source for What It's Like

{{Short description|1998 single by Everlast}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = What It's Like
| cover      = Everlast-WhatIt'sLike.jpg
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Everlast]]
| album      = [[Whitey Ford Sings the Blues]]
| B-side     = 7 Years
| released   = {{start date|1998|07}}<ref name="borzillo">{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1998/BB-1998-08-29.pdf|title=Everlast Tones Down Hip-Hop on Tommy Boy's 'Whitey Ford'|last=Borzillo|first=Carrie|author-link=Carrie Borzillo|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|volume=110|issue=35|page=26|date=August 29, 1998|access-date=April 17, 2021}}</ref>
| recorded   =
| studio     =
| venue      =
| genre      =
* [[Blues rock]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fresnobee.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article35268822.html|title=Everlast brings hip-hop country rock to Fulton 55|author=Tehee, Joshua|date=September 16, 2015|newspaper=The Fresno Bee|access-date=November 13, 2019}}</ref>
* [[country blues|folk blues]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/10/25/everlast-38/f1794fa0-7e16-42d4-82d4-0d90c46c9b48/|title=Everlast &|author=Wartofsky, Alona|date=October 25, 2000|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=November 13, 2019}}</ref>
* [[alternative rock]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/02/14/a-b-boy-changes-his-tune-and-life/3a85f3c6-9d67-4328-aee2-a96d9cc835a7/|title=A B-Boy Changes His Tune, And Life|author=Wartofsky, Alona|date=February 14, 1999|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=November 13, 2019}}</ref>
* [[alternative hip hop]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/music/heart-attack-man-6331629|title=Heart-Attack Man|author=Simutis, David|date=February 11, 1999|newspaper=Broward-Palm Beach New Times|access-date=November 13, 2019}}</ref>
| length     =
* 5:03 (album version)
* 4:37 (video version)
* 3:50 (radio edit)
| label      = [[Tommy Boy Records|Tommy Boy]]
| writer     = Everlast
| producer   = Everlast
| prev_title = The Rhythm
| prev_year  = 1990
| next_title = Painkillers
| next_year  = 1998
| misc       = {{Audio sample
 | type        = single
 | file        = Everlast - Whats it's Like.ogg
 | description = "What It's Like"
}}
{{External music video|{{YouTube|qA1nGPM9yHA|What It's Like}}}}
}}
"'''What It's Like'''" is a song by American musician [[Everlast]]. It was released in July 1998 as the lead single from his second studio album, ''[[Whitey Ford Sings the Blues]]'' (1998). The song is typical of the style Everlast embraced after leaving [[Hip hop music|hip hop]] trio [[House of Pain]], which combines rock, hip-hop and blues while incorporating characterization and empathy towards impoverished protagonists.

The song peaked at number one on the US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Mainstream Rock (chart)|Mainstream Rock Tracks]] chart for one week and on the [[Alternative Songs|Modern Rock Tracks]] chart for nine weeks. It also reached number 13 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]], becoming the singer's only solo top-40 hit on the US chart.<ref name="Whitburn">[[Joel Whitburn|Whitburn, Joel]] (2004). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 213.</ref> Outside the United States, the song reached number four in Iceland, number six in Canada, and the top 40 in Australia, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In September 2023, for the 35th anniversary of the Modern Rock Tracks chart (which by then had been renamed to Alternative Airplay),<ref name="Alt-35">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/alternative-airplay-chart-35th-anniversary-foo-fighters-all-time-low-rule-1235408126/|title=Alternative Airplay Chart's 35th Anniversary: Foo Fighters Remain No. 1 Act, 'Monsters' New Top Song|last=Rutherford|first=Kevin|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|date=September 7, 2023|access-date=November 15, 2023}}</ref> ''Billboard'' published a list of the top 100 most successful songs in the chart's history; "What It's Like" was ranked at number&nbsp;52.<ref name="Greatest-Alt-2023">{{cite magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006001750/https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-alternative-songs/|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-alternative-songs/|title=Greatest of All Time Alternative Songs|archive-date=October 6, 2023|access-date=November 15, 2023|url-status=live|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]}}</ref>

==Song structure==
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2019}}
Structurally, the song consists of three verses, a chorus, and a bridge. The last line of the chorus varies according to the particular situation faced by the character in the preceding verse. Each character is sympathetically presented as a victim of circumstance and as being an object of derision. Each verse ends with the line ''God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his/her shoes'' (in the third verse, "''...you ever had to wake up to hear the news''") and ''Cause then you really might know what it's like to'', with the action varying depending on what the character has to do ("sing the blues," "have to choose," and "have to lose," respectively).

The characters are:
* A [[beggar]] (''We’ve all seen the man at the liquor store beggin’ for your change/The hair on his face is dirty, dreadlocked and full of mange''); when asking for change from a man, he is rudely rejected (''He asks the man for what he could spare with shame in his eyes/"Get a job, you fuckin' slob" is all he replies'')
* Mary, a pregnant girl who decides to have an [[abortion]] (''Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom who said he was in love''); when she approaches the entrance of the clinic, she is labeled a "killer," a "sinner," and a "whore."
* A drug dealer named Max, a man with violent friends and an [[alcoholism|alcohol problem]] (''I knew this kid named Max, he used to get fat stacks out on the corner with drugs/He liked to hang out late, he liked to get shit-faced and keep the pace with thugs'') who dies a violent death (''Until late one night there was a big gunfight and Max lost his head/He pulled out his chrome .45, talked some shit, and wound up dead'').

The speaker attempts to build empathy for each character's struggle through the phrase "God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his/her shoes/Cause then you really might know what it's like". The third verse changes the angle slightly to focus on the family left behind: "Now his wife and his kids are caught in the midst of all of his pain/You know it crumbles that way, at least that's what they say when you play the game/God forbid you ever had to wake up to hear the news/Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to lose".

==Music video==
The [[music video]] was directed by Frank Sacramento in Los Angeles. Everlast is shown singing underwater while the three characters depicted in his song drown. Later they are crowded around a window (possibly dead) behind which an idyllic family is enjoying dinner, oblivious to the less fortunate outside.

==Track listings==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
'''UK CD and cassette single'''<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=What It's Like|others=[[Everlast (musician)|Everlast]]|year=1999|type=UK CD single liner notes|publisher=[[Tommy Boy Records]]|id=TBCD 470}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=What It's Like|others=Everlast|year=1999|type=UK cassette single sleeve|publisher=Tommy Boy Records|id=TBC 470}}</ref>
# "What It's Like" (radio edit) – 3:49
# "What It's Like" (original album version) – 5:03

'''UK 7-inch single'''<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=What It's Like|others=Everlast|year=1999|type=UK 7-inch single sleeve|publisher=Tommy Boy Records|id=TBV 7470}}</ref>
:A. "What It's Like" (original album version) – 5:03
:B. "7 Years" – 4:04
{{col-2}}
'''European and Australian CD single'''<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=What It's Like|others=Everlast|year=1999|type=European CD single liner notes|publisher=Tommy Boy Records|id=TBCD 7470}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=What It's Like|others=Everlast|year=1999|type=Australian CD single liner notes|publisher=[[Mushroom Records]], Tommy Boy Records|id=MUSH01862.2}}</ref>
# "What It's Like" (radio edit) – 3:49
# "What It's Like" (original album version) – 5:03
# "7 Years" – 4:04
{{col-end}}

==Charts==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}

===Weekly charts===
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1998–1999)
!Peak<br/>position
|-
{{single chart|Australia|26|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|rowheader=true|refname="aus"}}
|-
{{single chart|Austria|17|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|rowheader=true}}
|-
{{single chart|Canadatopsingles|6|chartid=7350|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
{{single chart|Canadaadultcontemporary|33|chartid=8166|rowheader=true|access-date=October 4, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Canadarock|14|chartid=7450|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
{{single chart|Germany|17|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|songid=3910|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
!scope="row"|Iceland ([[Íslenski listinn|Íslenski Listinn Topp 40]])<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timarit.is/page/2974891#page/n9/mode/2up|title=Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (1.10–8.10. 1998)|newspaper=[[DV (newspaper)|Dagblaðið Vísir]]|language=is|page=10|date=October 2, 1998|access-date=October 4, 2019}}</ref>
|4
|-
{{single chart|Dutch100|58|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|rowheader=true}}
|-
{{single chart|New Zealand|31|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|rowheader=true}}
|-
{{single chart|Scotland|33|date=19990227|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
{{single chart|Switzerland|20|artist=Everlast|song=What It's Like|rowheader=true}}
|-
{{single chart|UK|34|date=19990227|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
{{single chart|UKindie|7|date=19990227|rowheader=true|access-date=November 8, 2018}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardhot100|13|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardadultalternativesongs|13|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardadultpopsongs|9|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardalternativesongs|1|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardmainstreamrock|1|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|-
{{single chart|Billboardpopsongs|4|artist=Everlast|rowheader=true|access-date=August 31, 2019}}
|}
{{col-2}}

===Year-end charts===
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1998)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timarit.is/page/2978871?iabr=on#page/n29/mode/2up|title=Íslenski Listinn Topp 100 – Vinsælustu Lögin '98|newspaper=Dagblaðið Vísir|language=is|page=34|date=January 2, 1999|access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref>
|26
|-
!scope="row"|US Modern Rock Tracks (''Billboard'')<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Most Played Modern Rock Songs of 1998|magazine=[[Airplay Monitor]]|volume=6|issue=52|page=36|date=December 25, 1998}}</ref>
|89
|}
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1999)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Singles (''RPM'')<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.9952&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.9952.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.9952|title=RPM 1999 Top 100 Hit Tracks|magazine=[[RPM (magazine)|RPM]]|via=[[Library and Archives Canada]]|access-date=November 8, 2018}}</ref>
|29
|-
!scope="row"|Germany (Media Control)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.offiziellecharts.de/charts/single-jahr/for-date-1999|title=Top 100 Single–Jahrescharts 1999|publisher=[[GfK Entertainment]]|language=de|access-date=April 21, 2018}}</ref>
|81
|-
!scope="row"|US ''Billboard'' Hot 100<ref>{{cite web|url=http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1999|title=Billboard Top 100 – 1999|access-date=August 31, 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304120640/http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1999|archivedate=March 4, 2009}}</ref>
|28
|-
!scope="row"|US Adult Top 40 (''Billboard'')<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1999/BB-1999-12-25.pdf|title=1999 The Year in Music: Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks|magazine=Billboard|volume=111|issue=52|page=YE-100|date=December 25, 1999|access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref>
|24
|-
!scope="row"|US Mainstream Rock Tracks (''Billboard'')<ref name="usrockye">{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1999/BB-1999-12-25.pdf|title=1999 The Year in Music|magazine=Billboard|volume=111|issue=52|page=YE-90|date=December 25, 1999|access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref>
|4
|-
!scope="row"|US Mainstream Top 40 (''Billboard'')<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Most Played Mainstream Top 40 Songs of 1999|magazine=Airplay Monitor|volume=7|issue=52|page=54|date=December 24, 1999}}</ref>
|15
|-
!scope="row"|US Modern Rock Tracks (''Billboard'')<ref name="usrockye"/>
|2
|}
{{col-end}}

==Release history==
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
!scope="col"|Region
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Format(s)
!scope="col"|Label(s)
!scope="col"|{{abbr|Ref.|Reference}}
|-
!scope="row" rowspan="3"|United States
|July 1998
|[[Alternative radio|Modern rock radio]]
|rowspan="4"|[[Tommy Boy Records|Tommy Boy]]
|<ref name="borzillo"/>
|-
|November 2, 1998
|[[Active rock]] radio
|<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Adds for November 2 & 3|magazine=[[Gavin Report]]|issue=2229|page=38|date=October 22, 1998}}</ref>
|-
|January 12, 1999
|[[Contemporary hit radio]]
|<ref>{{cite magazine|title=New Releases|magazine=[[Radio & Records]]|issue=1281|page=39|date=January 8, 1999}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"|United Kingdom
|February 15, 1999
|{{hlist|7-inch vinyl|CD|cassette}}
|<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1999/Music-Week-1999-02-13.pdf|title=New Releases – For Week Starting 15 February, 1999|magazine=[[Music Week]]|page=27|date=February 13, 1999|access-date=July 16, 2021}}</ref>
|}

== Legacy ==
In April 2015, "What It's Like" was seen playing on the car radio in the [[dashcam]] recording during the [[killing of Walter Scott]] by North Carolina police officer Michael Slager. Everlast has said that he was shocked by hearing the song connected to the tragedy and has calling it "fucked up", and has also called it "ironic" considering the lyrics themes of empathy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stutz |first=Colin |date=April 5, 2016 |title=Everlast Tells Trump to Stop Using ‘Jump Around,’ But He Won’t Sue: That’s a ‘Scumbag Donald Trump Move’ |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/everlast-donald-trump-house-pain-jump-around-interview-7318972/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Everlast}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1998 singles]]
[[Category:1998 songs]]
[[Category:Everlast (musician) songs]]
[[Category:Mushroom Records singles]]
[[Category:Songs about abortion]]
[[Category:Songs about alcohol]]
[[Category:Songs about homelessness]]
[[Category:Songs about poverty]]
[[Category:Tommy Boy Records singles]]
[[Category:Songs written by Everlast]]