Within the past couple of years, I have realized that music can do anything. It can change, help, or even possibly ruin lives. I'm the type of person who, if I hear a song that I truly love or resonate with, I'll listen it to forever and if I had to, I could listen to it for the rest of my life. Out of the millions and billions of songs in the world, only a few do that to me, and I think that's just enough. But within the last year, I've been listening to albums that totally change my way of thinking and basically took me on an emotional and intellectual journey that will always stick with me. And to me, that should be something that music does.
I'll go in the order in which I listened to each album.
The first album was 2014 Forest Hills Drive. I wasn't really a J. Cole fan until I heard this album. I listen to a few tracks from his previous album Born Sinner, and you know I had a few favorites. But his latest album blew me away and I related heavily to the album, to J. Cole, and I learned a lot about him. I was about to list my favorite tracks but I realized that my favorite tracks are about half of the album, so just know, that I love this album. I love it because J. Cole is basically story telling in this album and story telling is my life. And honestly, I don't car what critics say about the album. I think 1) It's his best work up to date and 2) It's one of the most relatable rap albums I've heard in a while (mind you I'm just speaking for myself). Also, it's just a feeling thing. Some things, you can have a perfect explanation as to why you love something and other times, words cannot explain why you just care for and love something so much. I think J. Cole has grown a lot to produce the album that he has recently. He's come a long way and this album is proof of that to me. This album makes me excited about what's to come from him. It makes me smile, it makes me mad, it makes me mad, the whole album takes me on a journey because it's essentially a journey that I stumbled upon and can't wait to purposely join the next one.
The second album is To Pimp a Butterfly. This album was masterpiece. It's the first classic album to be born during my time era. But funny enough, I didn't even listen to it when it came out. I didn't listen to it until I think a couple of months ago. I have a habit of doing that sometimes. I'll wait until the hype has completely died down in order for me to fully listen to the album and digest everything that's within. Even then, I haven't even digested everything that Kendrick put into that album, and honestly, I'm unsure if I ever will. I will always be learning from that album, and that is the beauty of it. Kendrick made sweet love to this album and because of that, it's totally inspired me to get back into the groove of being creative. I used to be so cool in the tenth grade, I created art whenever I wanted and everything about myself was art. Now I'm so boring and I wish I was still the old me. I want to create again. I don't want to create something just to create something, I want it to have meaning, purpose, and I want it to have a life of its own and all I have to do is breathe life into it. TPAB reminds me of the passion I once possessed. If a person saw me on the street, they're automatic assumption was that I was an artist. I'm unsure if people still think of me like that now, but I hope they do and I hope they'll always think of me in that way. And TPAB taught me things about myself that I just couldn't explain.
And the third album is the newest album and that album would be Lemonade. It's funny because I never really considered myself a Beyonce fan even though if I really thought about it, I've been listening to her music for years. Lemonade is definitely something different from her other albums. But besides her growth as an artist, the album really spoke to me as an artist. The visual album was absolutely breath taking.
