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. The song is typical of the style Everlast embraced after leaving 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 Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for one week and on the Modern Rock Tracks chart for nine weeks. It also reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer's only solo top-40 hit on the US chart. 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, Billboard published a list of the top 100 most successful songs in the chart's history; "What It's Like" was ranked at number 52.

Song structure

The verses describe three situations of people facing hardship:
  • A homeless man outside a liquor store, who begs for change from passers-by but receives only scornful replies.
  • A woman whose boyfriend abandons her after she becomes pregnant by him. Deciding to have an abortion, she draws condemnation from protesters outside the clinic.
  • The grieving wife and children of a drug dealer who has been shot and killed.
Each verse ends with the narrator's urging that the listeners put themselves in the characters' situation in order to better understand their troubles. During the bridge, he comments on the difficulties he has witnessed in others' lives and experienced in his own, saying, "I've seen the good side of bad and the down side of up and everything in between."

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 behind which an idyllic family is enjoying dinner, oblivious to the less fortunate outside.

Track listings

UK CD and cassette single
  1. "What It's Like" – 3:49
  2. "What It's Like" – 5:03
UK 7-inch single
European and Australian CD single
  1. "What It's Like" – 3:49
  2. "What It's Like" – 5:03
  3. "7 Years" – 4:04

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Canada Top Singles 29
Germany 81
US Billboard Hot 10028
US Adult Top 40 24
US Mainstream Rock Tracks 4
US Mainstream Top 40 15
US Modern Rock Tracks 2

Legacy

In April 2015, "What It's Like" was heard playing on the car radio in the dashcam recording during the killing of Walter Scott by Charleston, South Carolina police officer Michael Slager. Everlast said that he was shocked by hearing the song connected to the tragedy and called it "fucked up" and "ironic" considering its lyrical themes of empathy.