It’s so easy to read the title of a song, glance at the artist, and immediately make the assumption that the piece is solely about a lifestyle that is (by way of the media) linked to that particular genre of music. Moreover, to assume that all songs of that genre are exactly the same.
All country songs are about getting wasted in the back of a pick-up truck and watching a girl drunkenly dance in her daisy dukes. Misconception. All punk-rock songs are about a hysterically elaborate break up, and breaking the rules to fill the voids of that trashed relationship. Misconception (kind of). All rap songs are about seein’ that booty bop and spending money on lines and booze. Chance the Rapper is a rapper, so his songs must all be like that. Hard misconception.
If you haven’t given yourself the gift of listening to the lyrical magic that is Chance the Rapper’s latest album, Coloring Book, in my humble opinion, you must.
If I draw your attention to the song “Smoke Break,” you’d probably believe this track to be about, well, smoking. Sure, the most repeated line in the song is “we deserve, we deserve, we deserve a smoke break,” and, yea, that’s basically spelling out the idea of smoking, in this case, some weed. However, let’s briefly analyze a verse:
“Truth being told, we used to movies and bowl
We used to Netflix and roll
I used to pass her the smoke
She used to laugh at my jokes
You pat my back when I choke
Wish we were stuck in our ways
We way too young to get old”
Paying attention to the rest of the song, it’s all like this. She used to, I used to, we used to. Chance the Rapper is painting a portrait of two people who once had time for each other. They once had time to listen to each other, laugh with each other, smoke with each other. The verses go on to elaborate how these once cherished moments of character and freedom are now victims of time. Time is too fast for everyone. For every day we enjoy, it seems as if there are years of missed moments that would otherwise make us happy.
Which brings us back to our good, old friend that is the repetitive line of: “we deserve a smoke break.” Because through all of the rushing to work and rushing through every single day, there needs to be a break. And not only does it just need to happen, time has taken too much from us and we deserve to take a little bit of it.
So, there it is. This song is meant to be about so much more than an alternative preconceived notion, based on simply the title and the genre of music the piece hails from.
It’s frustrating how easy it can be for people to miss key messages an artist desires to portray. I cannot stress enough how, in the name of music, one must be open minded. Do more for a song than hear it, listen to it.
