When Danny White entered the second grade, he had high hopes for making new friends. “But instead, I got Tourette’s,” he explains in the opening of his new song “Pinocchio,” which arrived earlier this week (September 15).
The Lynn rapper has built a significant online platform surrounding his music and life with Tourette syndrome, garnering over 44,000 followers on TikTok. While the subject surfaces in many of White’s previous songs and freestyles, “Pinocchio” marks his first release that’s “exclusively about living with Tourette syndrome,” and uses puppetry as a metaphor for experiencing tics and a lack of physical control. The idea to incorporate this symbolism into a song is relatively recent, White says, but the character of Pinocchio has resonated with him since childhood.
“When I was little, Pinocchio was a Disney movie I really identified [with],” he tells Vanyaland. “His need to be a real boy, causing trouble for attention, and being put on display for people to laugh at was something I went through living with Tourette as a kid.”
The chorus of “Pinocchio” directly references that sentiment when White poses the earnest question, “What’s it like to have control? / Something I’ll just never know.” But the single focuses just as much on what he does know, namely harmful misconceptions that impact how he’s treated and perceived. When White raps that he’s “sick of all these strings,” the metaphor can extend to situations that often accompany life with Tourette syndrome: Pressure to take medication with severe side effects, well-intentioned but ignorant comments from strangers, and the pervasive assumption that people living with the syndrome must be “helpless.”
“To the public it’s either, you have it and you yell swears, or [you] just lose control,” White reflects. “Although that’s the case for some people, a lot of people who struggle living with it can have very subtle symptoms that they become great at hiding to draw attention in public away from themselves, or symptoms manifest in less obvious ways. People will see the more subtle side and say, ‘oh wow, it doesn’t seem that bad,’ or they’ll mean well and say, ‘oh wow! I didn’t even notice you had Tourette.'”
He adds: “These usually come from a good place, but sometimes it can really be annoying to hear. I can’t speak for the entire community, but it would be nice for people to just simply take the time and learn about what we might experience as an individual!”
But even though “Pinocchio” rejects a one-size-fits-all understanding of life with Tourette syndrome, White designed the song to be both a reflection of his unique experience and a universal message of support for listeners who feel different or powerless. Despite his frustrations, the single isn’t a lament; it’s an insightful venting session, with ample room for others to learn or join in.
“It’s for anyone who gets frustrated about being born with something out of their control,” he concludes. “Sometimes we feel powerless, and that can lead to hopelessness. Now, when I think of control, I just mean being in charge of who you want to be and what you want to do.”
Tune in to White’s story below.