I have chosen the song “January 28th” by J. Cole for my midterm. While this is not even close to one of his popular songs, it delivers a great message. It is clear through all his songs, J. Cole has a pattern of sharing real stories in a mentor-like fashion. The song sticks out to me the most because it talks about real issues that stem in many communities today. Most of the time, I use music as a way to unwind and have a good time. However, some songs stick out in a way that leaves me in awe. “January 28th”, is one of those songs.
This song touches on a few topics such as authenticity, ego, and representation. Jermaine Cole uses his music as a social and political avenue making him very influential to his listeners. Therefore, the intended audience I am imagining for my close-reading essay is the youth. Being as impressionable as they are, the youth are the perfect audience because they can learn alot from the subtle messages portrayed in J. Cole’s music. As someone who is living and growing, I think this song can personally relate to me because it offers advice in ways that can have a positive impact on my life and those around me. Cole does a very good job in sharing his true life experience in which he offers advice to those to come. With that, I think my close read will allow the youth to internalize the lessons in his music while appreciating its artistry.
The two similar texts that I have discovered through research are “Breakdown: J. Cole –January 28th” and “The legacy of J. Cole embodies the essence of music”. The first article analyzes the lyrics at hand by stanza and offers its own interpretation immediately after. The second article takes a step back and analyzes J. Cole as an artist and how/why his music has been so influential in an essay format. I particularlly took interest in this article because it points out generic conventions in his music that may not be so obvious especially in this generation of hip hop music. While this article does not include any direct lyrics, it gives important context of the artist. For my midterm, I plan on doing a mix of both in analyzing direct lyrics but also providing important context.
I think that my object intersects/overlaps with class because this song mentions an important theme of authenticity and staying true to yourself. It also mentions other important topics like identity and representation, which fall hand in hand with several texts and media we have looked at in class.