Clouds as Witnesses

At its core, "Clouds as Witnesses" is a raw, unflinching exploration of severe depression, suicidal ideation, addiction, and existential apathy. The title itself suggests a cosmic insignificance, where the clouds in the sky act as the only, silent spectators to the duo's quiet, daily self-destruction. The song does not romanticize their struggles; instead, it offers a bleak, atmospheric portrait of life in the margins, using extreme themes to convey a genuine, deep-seated emotional pain.

Ruby's verse is a deeply poetic, gothic narrative of isolation and self-harm. His reference to "static" in his eyes represents depersonalization—the complete dissociation from reality that often accompanies trauma. His interaction with a woman is masked in dark, morbid imagery, where he invites her to his home but warns that he likes to "give burials," portraying himself as emotionally toxic or dead inside. The chilling climax of his verse reveals that his failure to answer the phone wasn't due to negligence, but because he was "hanging in the hall," a devastatingly casual reference to suicide by hanging.

$crim's verse grounds these existential terrors in the gritty, physical reality of drug addiction and generational trauma in New Orleans. He describes the mundane, repetitive loop of substance abuse as a coping mechanism to survive the day, rejecting any hope for a future. The line "whole fucking family got bloodshot eyes" points to a legacy of systemic struggle and addiction, while "scripts in the kitchen right next to the dishes" highlights how heavily medicated survival has become normalized. Together, both verses paint a picture of two young men who feel entirely abandoned by society, finding solace only in their music, drugs, and the grim certainty of their own mortality.

The narrative begins with a gaze cast over the serene yet heavy waters, comparing its dark ripples to the smooth, deceptively calm texture of satin. Beneath this tranquil surface, however, lies an overwhelming cognitive overload represented by the absolute, blinding static that fills the narrator's eyes. There is a raw, transactional descent into the underworld of addiction; the speaker is packaging illegal narcotics, completely indifferent to the law, and bound by a strict street code of silence. This cold reality is punctuated by the presence of a mysterious Latin quote tattooed across his throat, a literal and symbolic vocal barrier that demands distance or serves as a dark omen. He invites a woman into his domestic sanctuary, which is painted not as a home, but as a site of potential burial and absolute doom. His contact details are given with a chilling instruction to dial the numbers of the beast, 666, an invitation to a metaphorical hell. He waits in absolute isolation, desiring a connection, but his self-destructive destiny ultimately intervenes. When the telephone rings, he is unable to answer because he is already suspended from the ceiling in a silent hallway—a stark, devastating image of suicide, finding a tragic sort of peace in his final moments.

In the second half, the perspective shifts to a chaotic, numbed existence fueled by pills and distraction. The speaker sits engulfed in immediate gratification, clutching a pocket full of raw crack-cocaine or prescription stones while aimlessly watching television and ignoring calls of absolute intimacy. There is a profound rejection of the future, a literal countdown toward inevitable death where the passage of time is measured only by the desire to remain perpetually intoxicated. Sobriety is a threat to his fragile composure, leaving him looking like a corpse draped over a sofa, hovering between the physical world and a six-foot-deep grave. This tragic existence is marked by three gold teeth and a complete absence of hope, framing his youth as a self-fulfilling tragedy. He watches the days of his life slip away like a soap opera, noting that his entire family shares the same bloodshot eyes of generational trauma and shared addiction. The kitchen counter holds prescription pill bottles right next to mundane household dishes, a casual merging of survival and destruction. Ultimately, he asserts his identity as a soldier of the West Bank of New Orleans, boasting a cold, unyielding resilience in a world that has frozen his heart completely.

"Clouds as Witnesses" was released on March 3, 2015, as the ninth track on the duo's breakout mixtape Gray/Grey. The track was recorded in New Orleans, Louisiana, during a highly prolific period of the group's early career when cousins Aristos Petrou (Ruby da Cherry) and Scott Arceneaux Jr. ($crim) were operating under a pact to either succeed in the music industry or commit suicide by the age of 30.

The song was produced by $crim under his well-known production moniker, Budd Dwyer. The core of the instrumental is a heavily pitch-shifted and looped sample of the song "Music Is Math" by the highly influential Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada, originally released on their 2002 album Geogaddi. This sample provides the melancholic, nostalgic, and ambient foundation of the track, which became a defining characteristic of mid-2010s cloud rap. The official music video, shot in a signature lo-fi VHS style, prominently features a scrolling poem across the bottom of the screen written by Ruby da Cherry. This poem, dealing with a metaphorical shipwreck, acts as a thematic sister-piece to the track and is famously read aloud by Ruby at the end of "Kill Yourself (Part II)".

The song is rich with gloomy metaphors and symbols that illustrate the depths of depression, drug addiction, and existential dread. Some of the key elements include:

• Satin Water: In Ruby's opening line, "Staring at the water looking like a bunch of satin," water represents a deceptively peaceful, beautiful medium that ultimately signifies death by drowning. It symbolizes the seductive pull of suicide and the desire to be swallowed by oblivion.
• Static Eyes: The metaphor "all you see is motherfucking static" represents extreme emotional numbness, depersonalization, and cognitive overload. It suggests that the speaker's internal state has been reduced to white noise due to trauma and substance abuse.
• Hanging in the Hall: This serves as a grim double entendre. While it literally references hanging up a phone to miss calls, it strongly symbolizes death by suicide (hanging). The addition of "toll free" plays on the idea that ending his life costs him nothing more, contrasting physical phone bills with the ultimate price of existence.
• Three Gold Teeth and Six Feet Deep: This image contrasts traditional Southern rap bravado (gold grills) with absolute mortality, illustrating how the duo's identity and culture are permanently bound to their self-destructive path.
• The Clouds: The title "Clouds as Witnesses" itself acts as a massive cosmic metaphor. It portrays nature as a passive, unfeeling spectator that silently observes their slow decay and eventual demise without intervening, highlighting their utter isolation.

The predominant emotional tone of "Clouds as Witnesses" is deeply melancholic, detached, and bittersweet, with underlying currents of anxiety and quiet resignation. The emotional landscape is crafted through a masterful marriage of its production and vocal delivery:

The Boards of Canada sample infuses the track with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and faded warmth, evoking memories of a time before trauma took hold. However, this warmth is starkly subverted by the cold, heavy 808 basslines and sterile trap percussion, creating a feeling of modern alienation. Ruby's vocal performance shifts from a melodic, detached description of nature to an eerie, dramatic narrative of suicide, building a sense of cold dread. $crim's subsequent verse shifts the emotion into a heavy, sluggish numbness. His delivery is flat and exhausted, reflecting the physical and mental paralysis of severe depression and substance dependency. There are no sudden bursts of anger or hope; instead, the song exists in a steady, atmospheric state of tragic acceptance, where the artists have fully embraced their pain and look to the sky only to find silent, unmoving clouds.

Despite its deeply underground and independent origins, "Clouds as Witnesses" has achieved monumental cult status and remains one of the most celebrated tracks in the $uicideboy$ discography. Releasing during the golden era of SoundCloud rap, the song helped pioneer the "shadow rap" and "cloud rap" subgenres, bridging the gap between underground Southern trap and electronic IDM music.

To date, the track has accumulated over 86 million streams on Spotify, testifying to its incredible longevity and resonance with listeners. The music video, directed and edited in a nostalgic, lo-fi VHS aesthetic, became a staple of internet counterculture, widely shared across platforms like Tumblr and YouTube. By sampling Boards of Canada's "Music Is Math," the duo introduced a whole generation of hip-hop listeners to experimental electronic music, while demonstrating $crim's forward-thinking and genre-bending production capabilities. The song solidified the G*59 brand as a voice for the alienated, the depressed, and those struggling with addiction, serving as a cornerstone for the massive global fan base they command today.

The track relies on a mid-tempo trap beat (approximately 114 BPM) that is structured in a half-time rhythm. This tempo creates a sluggish, dreamlike atmosphere that perfectly mirrors the drug-addled states described in the lyrics. The interplay between the floating, ethereal Boards of Canada sample and the rigid, ticking trap hi-hats creates a unique tension, grounding a nostalgic electronic track into a gritty Southern hip-hop environment.

Lyrically, the song showcases distinct approaches to rhyme and rhythm:

• Ruby's Rhyme Scheme: Ruby's verse relies heavily on a complex chain of multi-syllabic slant rhymes and internal assonance. While his underlying structure follows an AABB scheme (satin/static, dope/throat), the boundaries are blurred by dense internal rhyming ("toe tagging," "bagging up," "no ratting"). This dense clustering of rhymes creates a rolling, highly rhythmic flow that contrasts with the airy beat.
• $crim's Rhyme Scheme: $crim utilizes a more traditional, straightforward AABB coupled rhyme scheme (stones/Thrones/phone/alone, die/high, composure/sofa, teeth/tragedy, by/eyes). This simplified structure emphasizes the heavy, blunt reality of his statements. His rhythmic pacing is slower and more dragged out, falling slightly behind the beat to mimic the heavy physical toll of his addiction.

"Clouds as Witnesses" employs several notable literary and musical techniques to amplify its haunting atmosphere:

• Juxtaposition: The song brilliantly places mundane, everyday activities next to elements of severe decay and illicit drug use. For instance, $crim raps about "watching Game of Thrones" right before discussing his countdown to death, and notes "Scripts in the kitchen right next to the dishes," illustrating how addiction has become an integrated, casual part of his domestic reality.
• Dark Irony and Wordplay: The phrase "hanging in the hall toll free" is a brilliant yet tragic pun that links a missed phone call to suicide, underscoring the dark humor the duo uses to cope with severe mental illness.
• Assonance and Slant Rhymes: Ruby utilizes a rapid-fire, highly structured flow in his opening lines, linking words like "satin," "static," "tagging," "bagging," "ratting," and "latin" to create a hypnotic, rhythmic pattern that feels both urgent and sluggish.
• Sampling: Musically, the continuous loop of Boards of Canada's "Music Is Math" acts as an emotional anchor. The warm, degraded texture of the vintage synth loops creates a sense of faded childhood nostalgia, contrasting with the cold, heavy 808s and sterile trap percussion.
• Vocal Contrast: The duo employs a dynamic vocal contrast where Ruby's verse features a slightly higher, more expressive, and dramatic pitch, whereas $crim's verse is delivered in a low, sluggish, and raspy monotone, mimicking the depressive slump of opioid abuse.

What sample is used in 'Clouds as Witnesses'?

The song samples 'Music Is Math' by the Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada. Producer Budd Dwyer ($crim) looped a melancholic synth portion of the track to create the song's signature nostalgic and hazy cloud-rap instrumental.

What does the lyric "hanging in the hall toll free" mean?

This lyric is a dark, double-entendre pun by Ruby da Cherry. On one hand, "hanging in the hall" refers to hanging up a telephone without completing a call. On the other hand, it is a literal, tragic reference to committing suicide by hanging, where "toll free" suggests that the act of dying cost him nothing further in life.

What is the scrolling text at the bottom of the "Clouds as Witnesses" music video?

The scrolling text is a deeply poetic prose written by Ruby da Cherry, metaphorically comparing his mental state to a shipwreck slowly sinking into the ocean. This poem is also recited by Ruby as a hidden spoken-word piece at the end of the song "Kill Yourself (Part II)" on digital streaming platforms.

What Latin quote is Ruby da Cherry referring to in the song?

Ruby refers to his prominent throat tattoo which features a Latin quote. The quote is "Noli Me Tangere", which translates to "Touch me not" or "Do not touch me", a phrase originating from the Vulgate Bible. In the context of the song, it acts as a literal warning of his emotional isolation and unavailability.

Who produced "Clouds as Witnesses"?

The song was produced by Budd Dwyer, which is the production alias of Scott Arceneaux Jr., also known as $crim, one half of the $uicideboy$ duo. He is responsible for the unique arrangement of the Boards of Canada sample alongside traditional trap percussion.