"Middle Child"

On the first day of my discussion section for my music class, our T.A. had the entire class go around and say who their favorite artists of all time were, a fun little ice breaker and a perfect segway into the class titled “Popular Music”. As he called role, one-by-one my classmates listed big names such as Chance the Rapper, Drake, Ariana Grande, Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton, J. Cole, etc. and I took a moment to listen in on who my peers considered to be “great”. I had no judgement towards any of them, (I had no reason to judge as I was the girl who had to explain what k-pop was) but I was genuinely interested to hear their opinions on today’s artists. As we broke up into small groups later on, we were instructed to choose one of our favorite artists and describe why we liked them or the significance they held in our lives. The first girl in our group told the story of how her friends introduced her to Chris Stapleton’s music, the next girl, who is from California, expressed her interest in Rex Orange County (very California of her), and I talked about Michael Jackson because I think I had confused them enough by bringing up BTS. The last kid in our group talked about how he liked the rapper J. Cole, which I found particularly interesting- one, because I actually listened to J.Cole’s most recent album and second, because the boy talked about J.Cole with such admiration for his work that I rarely see in 20 year old males. Intrigued, I asked this boy what songs from J.Cole he liked best, to which he answered that he liked them all but really liked his album KOD. This was not necessarily surprising to me, KOD is a great album and adored by fans, but I was taken aback again at this kids interest in J.Cole’s music, revering him as one of the greats in the entire industry. I joked about this interaction with a few of my friends, but more or less the memory faded to the back of my mind.

Flash forward to a few days later, while I was looking at the new music on Spotify, I noticed that J.Cole had released a song called “Middle Child”. I laughed in my head, wondering if “Mr. J.Cole” as I had named my classmate, had given it a listen and if he had, had he liked it? I played a few bars of the song then sort of skipped forward to the chorus. Like most rap songs I listen to I was more interested in the beat than the lyrics and musically, this song didn’t necessarily blow me away. The next day, the song played in my Spotify queue as I was cleaning my room and I took a break and gave the lyrics a closer listen. And let me just say- I think “Mr. J.Cole” might be onto something.

J.Cole’s song is the perfect example of what hip-hop music should be. With a strong influence from Jay-Z, who is one of J.Cole’s mentors and also the owner of the record label that Cole is signed to, this song is a laid-back message to J.Cole’s haters and a social statement about the hip-hop genre. J.Cole starts the song out by saying that he has been counted out of the game, but he is there stronger than ever ready to crush the competition. After a few references to his album KOD, Cole moves into his first verse, which I would argue to hold some of the best lines of the whole song. He raps “I do not snort powder, I might take a sip/I might hit the blunt, but I’m liable to trip/I ain’t poppin no pill, but you do as you wish.” For J.Cole fans, these lines may seem reminiscent of a song off his most recent album where he discusses the hip-hop industries glorification of drug use, an issue that has led many famous rappers to their recent deaths. An important issue to bring up, but for people just listening to this song who don’t know J.Cole, these lyrics still have a powerful message. To write about how he is not heavily involved in drug use, J.Cole is already showing his audience how he is different from other rappers and backing up his argument that he is one to beat. Later Cole writes, “This watch came from Drizzy, he gave me a gift/Back when the rap game was prayin I’d diss/They act like two legends cannot coexist.” The way that J.Cole is able to easily bring up his amicable relationship with Drake is a refreshing change from the recent beef between some well known rappers. He also calls out a mysterious “they” who Cole says is unable to let two artists just create- always wanting drama or a big fight for who’s on top. I think the use of “they” gives some interesting perspective for the audience, who might at first assume that J.Cole is calling out the industry for being so cutthroat. But after a second thought, perhaps Cole could be calling out fans for being entertained by rappers firing off cheap shots at one another on Twitter? This word play is brilliantly executed, again separating Cole from the “other rappers” while calling out a social issue in the rap world. J.Cole’s next few bars might be my favorite, as they were the ones that seriously got my attention when I gave the song a second listen. “If I smoke a rapper, it’s gon be legit/It won’t be for clout, it won’t be for fame/It won’t be cause my shit ain’t sellin the same/It won’t be to sell you my latest lil sneakers/It won’t be cause some n**** slid in my lane.” Rap fans may notice the reference that J.Cole is making here, a subtle diss at rapper Kanye West, who recently took to Twitter to voice his opinions about Drake. His line about sneakers, a clear allusion to Kanye’s brand of Yeezy’s, is well written to fit the bars of the song and provides just enough of a diss to keep it interesting, but still classy. I think that level of wordplay and poetry in a rap song is what the genre is known best for and Cole’s ability to keep that suaveness proves his point better than his lyrics are able to: that he is one of the greats. In typical rap fashion however, Cole doesn’t shy away from a moment to explicitly tell you he is the greatest, rapping “I studied the greats, I’m the greatest right now.”

J.Cole’s second verse really dives into the meaning behind the title of the song “Middle Child”. Again, Cole uses language and double meanings to provide a more complex meaning of the title, because he in fact, is not a middle child in the literally term. When he refers to the idea of being in the “middle”, he is addressing the generations of artist in the hip-hop industry. For example he writes, “I’m dead in the middle of two generations/I’m little bro and big bro all at once/Just left the lab with young 21 Savage/I’m bout to go and meet Jigga for lunch” J.Cole is talking about how he is smack dab in the middle of two great generations of rappers, influenced heavily by great rappers above him like Jay-Z (Jigga) and a mentor himself to the young generation of rappers, such as 21 Savage and Kodak Black. J.Cole accepts his role as a mentor and takes it seriously, noting just a few lines down about the high levels of young men in jail and the lack of guidance and structure that these boys have in their lives. “I wish that he had more guidance for real/Too many n***** in cycle of jail/Spending their birthdays inside of a cell.” These lines allow Cole to make a point about imprisonment rates that have risen in the past number of years, while also vowing to be a better role model himself. I think it is admirable for a rapper to take on this responsibility and call out the issues he is seeing become large trends. The reform that J.Cole is calling for is more of a societal one than personal one at this point, but he does take it upon himself to “make sure that the real gonna prevail”.

I think by taking a deeper look into the lyrics of this song, I can prove my point that the rap industry is not completely saturated by young dope smoking white guys who repeat the same lyrics for 30 seconds. The clear influence that J.Cole has from his predecessors is truly revealed in this song and it is inspiring to see an artist who is able to stay so true to his roots and the essence of hip-hop. I think the message of this song is clear: that J.Cole has a lot to say and he’s not going to stay quiet about it. I think this concept really hits home the true mission of hip-hop/rap music which has been and will continue to be calling out social issues and making a statement while doing so. I look forward to hearing what else J.Cole has to say this year and will have to thank “Mr. J.Cole” for giving me a reason to pay attention.

Reference:

https://genius.com/J-cole-middle-child-lyrics