J.Cole
Dominick Betters
In the song “High for hours” by J.Cole, he uses many different allusions, such as his connection to police brutality and his hometown “ Police still letting off on niggas in the ville” and his use of assonance rhymes to display musical resistance. Through his references of people struggling in north carolina and sounds that relate to police shootings he is showing that just because he is famous and has money does not mean he should forget about the people struggling.
The reason why J.cole uses music for resistance is because he feels like he has to. He feels like that since he is a famous and successful african american male he feels like he has to give back to his community. The way he gives back is through his music. The many different lyrics and sounds with hidden meanings show that he is giving back to his community. In his song high for hours he uses a slow and repetitive beat that does not change much throughout the song. His reasoning for this could be that he is relating it to the way that everything that occurs in america is a cycle such as police brutality and slavery(to a certain extent). The fact that he released the song on Martin Luther king day also is a form of resistance. The many topics that he mentions in the song all relate to resistance and how change needs to occur in america. Throughout the song there is one constant beat without much change. The main beat that he is rapping on there is a guitar that is being playing silently and there are drums that are played over that sound. Randomly throughout the song there is a baby noise being played. When he changes the topics that the talks about a starry noise is played that lets the listener know the transition from topic, to chorus to topic. The way the music is played its almost as it it is a beat that allows the listener to relax and truly reminisce and understand what j.cole is saying. If you look deeper into the sounds it could be viewed as the smooth sounds are the way america is viewed as a smooth running country but the baby noises that occur randomly throughout the song are the various bad things that happen in america such as shootings, poverty and other struggles. They are only noticed at certain points in time similar to the baby noise that is played.
J.cole has an interesting way of using music as a way of resistance. In his many songs he uses allusions and rhymes to get his point across. In his song high for hours he uses many allusions to allude back to his hometown dreamville NC. he mentions the many young black men that died at the hands of the police. In his song high for hours he talks about the irony in americans. He talks about how hypocritical they are when they talk about isis but were the same ones to kill osama bin laden. Throughout the song there are many clever allusions and skillfully matched rhymes. One of the first rhymes of the songs he uses is “ways”, “slaves” and “saves”. Here he is talking about how americans are hypocrites because when the reason why they came to america in the first place because they wanted freedom. The irony in this is that when they got to america the enslaved black people and stripped them of their freedom. To justify this was that they believed that because it was okay in christianity it was okay to do it. Christianity is the religion that saves all people. Another knock to america’s hypocrisy is when he rhymes the words “crisis” and “righteous”. Following off his previous rhyme he is saying that religion does not mean anything because americans still kill even though in christianity it is said that it is wrong to kill other people yet americans do it anyways. It is also ironic because americans frown upon isis for killing even though they kill themselves. To show his disappointment in america he uses and allusion to Lebron James. He says “Remember when Bin Laden got killed, supposedly In a hotel lobby after a show, was noticin’ These white ladies watchin’ CNN, coverin’ the action They read the headline and then they all started clappin’As if LeBron had just scored a basket at the buzzer”. This is dissappointg because why are the same people who constantly talk about how “thou shalt not kill” the same ones clapping when someone is killed and celebrating the same way as if an NBA basketball player scored a game winning shot.
Overall J.Coles “high for hours” is a good depiction of how J.Cole feels about america and its hypocrisy. In many other songs he talks about the the problems that occur in america such as police brutality, taxes, african american poverty and many more topics. He is not afraid to show resistance throughout his music because he feels as if it’s his duty as a rapper because he has the ability for his voice to be heard because he is so popular and has so much money to do so.
