Chop Suey!

Music and lyrics

The song's lyrics have been described as surrealist. 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", from the sayings of Jesus on the cross) were randomly picked by the singer, Serj Tankian, from the producer Rick Rubin's book collection after Tankian was struggling for ideas.

Musically, the song is characterized by "sonic whiplash," containing what are described as "slash-and-burn verses and a surprisingly melodic chorus." Serj Tankian's vocal delivery has been said to have the "precision of a drill sergeant."

Song title

The song was originally titled either "Suicide" (according to the bassist, Shavo Odadjian) or "Self-Righteous Suicide" (according to producer Rick Rubin), but the name was changed in response to real or anticipated pushback from Columbia Records. According to online interview with Odadjian, the song title is a wordplay as he said: "Chop Suey" is "suicide" "chopped" in half. Most pressings of the album include an intro to the track where the singer, Serj Tankian, can be heard saying "we're rolling 'Suicide while the drummer, John Dolmayan, is counting the band in.

Music video

The music video was the band's first collaboration with the director Marcos Siega, and is set in the parking lot of the Oak Tree Inn Motel, 5265 W Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles, 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 with some fans, the only reference to the title dish in either the song or the video. The video makes use of the SnorriCam 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 YouTube in November 2020.

Reception

In 2012, Loudwire 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! both named it as System of a Down's best song. In 2017, Annie Zaleski of Spin named it the fourth best nu metal track of all time. In March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked "Chop Suey!" at number 37 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list. As of September 2025, "Chop Suey!" has 1.7 billion streams on Spotify, making it System of a Down's most-streamed song.

Controversy

"Chop Suey!" was the first single from Toxicity, an album that was at number one on the Billboard 200 chart during the week of the September 11 attacks. A controversy surrounding the 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 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. In Australia, after hitting No. 3 on the Triple J Hottest 100 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 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

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Lil Uzi Vert version

On June 30, 2023, American rapper and singer Lil Uzi Vert released a cover of "Chop Suey!", titled "CS", as a part of their third studio album, Pink Tape.

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

References

References

1. (August 13, 2001). "System Of A Down's Schizophrenia Aggravated On Toxicity".
2. Chesler, Josh. (May 18, 2015). "10 Nu-metal Songs That Actually Don't Suck". [[Phoenix New Times]].
3. (June 30, 2023). "Lil Uzi Vert Covers System of a Down, Features Bring Me the Horizon + Babymetal on New Album".
4. (April 17, 2013). "Crashing the Party".
5. Krol, Charlotte. (November 28, 2020). "System Of A Down's 'Chop Suey!' reaches one billion views on YouTube".
6. (June 1, 2019). "A Deep Dive into System of a Down's Chop Suey! Video".
7. (27 December 2020). "System of a Down: Reuniting the Band, "Protect the Land," and Armenia {{!}} Apple Music".
8. Zaleski, Annie. (2017-05-17). "The 30 Best Nu-Metal Songs".
9. Kory Grow. (February 11, 2016). "Rick Rubin: My Life in 21 Songs". Rolling Stone.
10. (16 September 2020). "System of a Down's Shavo Odadjian - Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?".
11. Kaufman, Spencer (July 1, 2012). [http://loudwire.com/system-of-a-down-chop-suey-top-21st-century-hard-rock-songs/ "No. 1: System of a Down, 'Chop Suey!' – Top 21st Century Hard Rock Songs."] ''LoudWire.com''. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
12. Kaufman, Spencer. (August 21, 2012). "10 Best System of a Down Songs". [[Loudwire]].
13. Law, Sam. (November 6, 2020). "The 20 greatest System Of A Down songs – ranked". [[Kerrang!.
14. Zaleski, Annie. (2017-05-17). "The 30 Best Nu-Metal Songs".
15. (March 13, 2023). "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time".
16. [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2001/09/its_the_end_of_the_world_as_clear_channel_knows_it.html It's the End of the World as Clear Channel Knows It] Slate
17. "Toxicity — System of a Down — Billboard Singles". [[Rovi Corporation]].
18. "System of a Down Chart History (Canadian Digital Songs)".
19. "Top 200 Singles Semana 21 de 2025". [[Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa]].
20. "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001".
21. (January 14, 2003). "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2002 (Part 2)". [[Jam!]].
22. "Top All Internet Hits Russia Decade Chart: 20s". [[TopHit]].
23. (July 6, 2023). "System Of A Down members respond to Lil Uzi Vert's Chop Suey! cover".