[hendelwahwah]

Hend Elwahwah
English 1101
Dr. Hall
Its Beauty In The Struggle

It was a winter morning in Brooklyn, New York around 6:30 A.M., sunrise hitting my window, I am all bundled up, drinking my hot chocolate, listening to music on shuffle, the song “Love Yourz” starts playing by J.Cole, aka the G.O.A.T, mind you this is my all time favorite song and I always listen to it. But for some reason that morning I stopped and thought to myself, “What is J.Cole’s message in this song? What is he trying to say?.” I started listening more towards the lyrics. I also watched the music video because it explains the song in a visual way. What J.Cole is trying to portray for the audience in this song is to always be thankful for what you have. Trying to achieve your dream gets many people caught up with trying to make your dream turn into reality.
J.Cole’s come up was one of the craziest, he came up from nothing literally. “He was born in Frankfurt, Germany in a US army camp on 28th January 1985, where his father was stationed at that time. His father is of African descent while his mother is German origin. His father turned his back on his family soon and Cole’s mother brought him and his brother Zach to the US, North Carolina.” (J.Cole, p.1) J.cole moved to North Carolina where he thought of starting his career. He then moved to New York to get his education. “He attended St. John’s University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in communications in 2007. When J. Cole first arrived at the famed college in Queens, New York, he planned to study computer science, but he changed up majors and eventually added business as a minor.” (Ask the Urban Daily, p.1) J.Cole’s come up says alot about his career now. It also portrays what he tries to say in this song.
He proves to the audience to love your life, your dream will turn into reality when it’s your turn and being true to yourself. He proves that with the first lyrics that he constantly repeats 3 times. “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours.” There’s nothing better for you other than what’s written for you. J.cole went to college like the most of us, graduated with a degree, then later realized his passion for music. I mean, that happens with many people I personally know. “Cole had already released his first mixtape ‘The come up’ in the hope of getting noticed but got disappointment instead. He would stand outside Jay Z’s office for hours and when he finally got a call from the man himself, he knew his time had come. Jay Z was initially not impressed with Cole, but understood his passion and gave him a chance to feature in one of the songs for his album ‘The Blueprint 3’, which received critical acclaim and thereafter, Cole started collaborating with more artists and released his second mixtape in June 2009.” (J.Cole, p.2) He came up from nothing besides believing in himself knowing his passion will get him somewhere, after getting all this money he then realized there’s nothing better than to Love Yourz. One of the lyrics in the song “Love Yourz” J.Cole says, “Its beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.” The beauty of him believing in himself led him to the success. You may question why did he say “ugliness in the success,” well that’s because as he also says in the song, “What’s money without happiness? Or hard times without the people you love.” All your life you’d be thinking money will buy you happiness and you would be all set for life with all the money you got, but in reality you got to Love Yourz. Love the people that are in your life, appreciate, and cherish them till your last breath. You never know when it’s their time to go or even yours. Cole also states in his song, “Though i’m not sure what’s ‘bout to happen next, I asked for strength from the Lord up above.” When those loved ones end up dying, that money you wishing for or that money you got blessed with, it’s not gonna help you. Neither will it help you cope with your loss. Sorry not sorry. I get it, I really do. We all want that Louis Vuitton bag, or that Gucci fit, or those Yeezys that just dropped, or a nice car to stunt in. But, did you think for a second where that designer going to take you in life? Or all that bread you got in your bank account? All that materialistic shit aint going to take you anywhere in life. You have to Love Yourz in order to see the other side of life, you got to appreciate what you have in life because I promise you somebody out there got it way worse than you do. There are people out here living on the street, when we live in luxury compared to them. Yet, we still complain.
Personally, this song and the lyrics hits home for me. I would sometimes complain without realizing how blessed I really am. I would want all that materialistic stuff, but never notice how fortunate I am. To live in a house, to have food at any time of the day, to have everything I have, to have my own car, etc. Everything and anything I want I am capable of getting, but didn’t appreciate everything I am blessed with enough, atleast. Not only that but personally I am not a family oriented person. I love my family to death, but after listening to those lyrics, it all hit home for me. I felt like I didn’t appreciate the people in my life as much as i should, so those lyrics taught me alot. Since then, I appreciate life so much more, I appreciate my family more than ever. Which lead me to eventually become a family oriented person. Pausing that morning and actually paying attention to those lyrics was all a sign from God and has changed my life drastically. That was a wake up call for myself and hope for those reading this. I appreciate all my family and what I have way more than ever. This lead me to the realization that nothing lasts forever.
All in all, You can’t control what others have in their lives, but you can control how you view yours. So, love it. In society we live in this day in age where it’s really hard to do so, but you’ll eventually get it. What first was just a regular song to me, turned into a life lesson and an eye opener. Sooner than later, I began to appreciate life and the people in my life way more than I ever did. Furthermore, this proved alot to me and my situations. At that moment of listening to the song carefully at 6:30 A.M., I was actually thinking of many situations that I was guilty of. Instead I just told myself, Love Yourz.

Bibliography:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/j-cole-15463.php
https://theurbandaily.cassiuslife.com/2931400/where-did-j-cole-go-to-college/