Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts)

by Serj Tankian

Anyone who knows anything about songwriting would’ve told me that sentences like “All research and successful drug policy show that treatment should be increased and law enforcement should be decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences,” or “Drug money is used to rig elections and train brutal corporate-sponsored dictators around the world,” are not lyrics that belong in a song. But I didn’t care; I just jammed them straight in there, and the brutality of Daron’s music somehow complemented that stuff perfectly. At intervals, he chimes in with a goofy sing-songy line, “I buy my crack, my smack, my bitch right here in Hollywood.” His line is the antithesis of my lines—similar to his vocals on “Sugar”—but it helps balance all the weightiness of the song.