"Chop Suey!" is a song by the American heavy metal band System of a Down. It was released on August 13, 2001, as the first single from their second album, ''

Toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacteria, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect o ...

'' (2001). The single earned the band its first

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nomination in 2002 for

Best Metal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality performances in the heavy metal music genre. The Grammy Awards is an annual ceremony, where ...

at the

44th Annual Grammy Awards The 44th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 27, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The main recipient was Alicia Keys, winning five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for " Fallin'". U2 won fo ...

. "Chop Suey!" is often considered the band's

signature song A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...

, and its music video has reached one billion views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Overview

In an interview, System of a Down's 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 Serj Tankian ( , ; born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian-American musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band System of a Down, which was formed in 1994. Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down ...

, from the producer

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by produci ...

's book collection after Tankian was struggling for ideas. Although it was not revealed what book the lines were taken from, they are quoted from the

sayings of Jesus on the cross The sayings of Jesus on the cross (sometimes called the Seven Last Words from the Cross) are seven expressions biblically attributed to Jesus during his crucifixion. Traditionally, the brief sayings have been called "words". The seven sayings ar ...

( Luke 23:46 and Mark 15:34).

Song title

The song was originally titled either "Suicide" (according to the bassist,

Shavo Odadjian Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian (; born April 22, 1974) is an Armenian-American musician, best known as the bassist of nu metal band System of a Down. He also plays bass in a Trap music, trap group called North Kingsley and in the metal band Seven Hou ...

) or "Self-Righteous Suicide" (according to Rubin), but the name was changed in response to real or anticipated pushback from

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

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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 John Dolmayan () (born July 15, 1972) is an Armenian-American musician, best known as the drummer of System of a Down. He is also the former drummer for Scars on Broadway. Dolmayan was ranked number 33 on ''Loudwire''s list of ''Top 200 Hard R ...

, is

counting Counting is the process of determining the number of elements of a finite set of objects; that is, determining the size of a set. The traditional way of counting consists of continually increasing a (mental or spoken) counter by a unit for ever ...

the band in.

Music video

The music video was the band's first collaboration with the director

Marcos Siega Marcos Siega (born June 8, 1969, in New York City) is a film, television, commercial and music video director. He has also worked as a producer, a musician and an artist. Career In the late 1980s, he helped to form the New York–based punk band ...

, and is set in the parking lot of the Oak Tree Inn Motel, 5265 W

Sunset Blvd Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

, in

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, 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 Chop suey (usually pronounced ) is a dish from American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, generally consisting of meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or fish) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bea ...

with some fans, the only reference to the title dish in either the song or the video. The video makes use of the

SnorriCam A SnorriCam (also chestcam, body mount/bodymount, or bodycam) is a camera device used in filmmaking that is rigged to the body of the actor, with the camera facing the actor directly so that they appear in a fixed position in the center of the fr ...

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

in November 2020.

Reception

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive i ...

'' included the song in its list of "The Best Hard Rock Songs of the 21st Century", where it was ranked at number one. ''Loudwire'' and ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' both named it as System of a Down's best song. In March 2023, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' ranked "Chop Suey!" at number 37 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list. As of March 2024, “Chop Suey!” has 1.2B streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

, making it System of a Down’s most-streamed song.

Controversy

"Chop Suey!" was the first single off of ''

'', an album that was at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart during the week of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. A controversy surrounding the popular single, especially the line '"I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide"', at the time led to Clear Channel Radio placing the song on a list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles. Although it was never actually banned completely from the air, radio stations were advised against playing any of the songs on the list.

Track listing

Commercial performance

"Chop Suey!" was a moderate success on the charts around the world. In Australia, after hitting No. 3 on the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the publicly-funded Australian youth radio station Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Music of Australia, Australian and alternative music of th ...

of 2001, with virtually no airplay on commercial radio, it debuted and peaked at No. 14 in February 2002. It is System of a Down's highest-charting single in Australia. In the United States, the song peaked at No. 76, making it the band's lowest peaking song on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 due to the fact it was taken off the radio for its political lyrics. On the

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart, "Chop Suey!" peaked at No. 7, becoming the band's first top ten single. On the UK Singles Chart, it debuted and peaked at No. 17.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Lil Uzi Vert version

On June 30, 2023, American rapper and singer

Lil Uzi Vert Symere Bysil Woods ( ; born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they gained initial recognition following the release of the commer ...

released a cover of "Chop Suey!", titled "CS", as a part of their third studio album, ''Pink Tape''. System of a Down singer, Serj Tankian, posted on

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: "Covers are always the biggest compliment to artists and songwriters." The bassist, Shavo Odadjian, also reacted positively to the cover on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2001 singles 2001 songs System of a Down songs Songs written by Daron Malakian Songs written by Serj Tankian Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin Music videos directed by Marcos Siega American Recordings (record label) singles Columbia Records singles Songs about suicide Songs about drugs Obscenity controversies in music