 J Cole just dropped his new album KOD and on this album he has a track titled Friends which is basically a message to his friends who are drug addicts. So this is a big deal because addiction runs rampant in the black community and as somebody who is African American I really wanted to do a lyrical breakdown of this video so make sure that you stay tuned and you're gonna see me drop some bars. What is up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and one problem that isn't addressed enough is mental illness and addiction in the African American community here in the United States. This is something that hits close to home as I mentioned I'm half African American and like it's important to discuss this because there's a lot in hip hop culture that actually promotes drinking using drugs and things like that. So I'm really glad whenever an artist like J Cole addresses it and it's super duper important because people in the community need to start looking at this and realize that maybe there's something that we can actually do about it if we all come together. So if you're somebody who has a friend who's addicted to drugs whether they're African American or not you definitely want to stay tuned to this video because we're going to break it down he hits on some very very good points all right and do me a favor it's day four of mental health awareness month so may the fourth be with you I'm actually going to link a couple star wars videos I did if you want to check those out but it's day four of mental health awareness month so this month make sure you're sharing mental health content like this one all right but anyways like I mentioned I'm going to do kind of a lyrical breakdown I'm not going to do the entire song but I'm gonna pick out some lyrics and discuss a little bit about what these mean my perspective on it and maybe offer some solutions to all right so let's jump into it all right so I'm gonna do my best to kind of censor this and make it family friendly but the first verse goes like this I wrote this stuff to talk about the word addiction to my brothers I hope you're listening blank and blank I hope you're listening this is for the whole blank and veal I hope you're listening so like he's saying like j Cole has friends who are addicted and he's hoping that they hear this song and get this message smoking medical grade but I ain't got prescription all the way in Cali where they ain't got precipitation feeling like I'm the only one who made it and I hate it for my brothers because they ain't got ambition j Cole's talking about in his community where he came from like he was smoking pot and he worked his way up but there's a lot of other guys who are still left down there because they ain't got ambition and typically that's because of drug addiction the heck did you expect you can blame it on condition blame it on crack you can blame it on the system blame it on the fact that 12 got jurisdiction to ride around in neighborhoods that they ain't ever lived in blame it on the strain that you feel when daddy missing blame it on Trump stuff blame it on Clinton blame it on trap music and politicians or the fact that every black boy want to be pipping but they only got 12 slots on the pistons blame it on the rain millie vanilly with the disc dip like this is something this is one of the million reasons why I start off every video where I say we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and that's kind of what j Cole's talking about like we can blame it on all sorts of different things we can blame it on the system we can blame it on the president or it mentions Clinton the presidential candidate you know you can blame it on your father leaving you we can blame it on all sorts of things we can blame it on the cops we can blame it on so much stuff what I'm trying to say is the blame can go deep as seeds just to blame them all I would need like 20 CDs so like he's talking about like so many people stay stuck in the problem stuck in the problem just passing the blame along left and right and this is a huge problem with addiction in America as a whole is that we keep blaming all these other things and he's saying he could fill 20 CDs with all the different things that he could blame there's all sorts of trauma from drama that children see type of stuff that normally would call for therapy but you know just how it go down in our community keep that stuff inside don't matter how hard it be now he's like he's talking about the community and this is where the community has to come together as a whole all right so you got these drug addicted or alcoholic adults but let's start looking towards the source all right so the other day I made a video on trauma responses and a lot of people drink and use based on trauma responses so he's saying that these young kids they're dealing with so much trauma like let's talk about the hood let's talk about gang violence let's talk about you know bad schools let's talk about you know kids who know their friends who get shot and stuff like that like there's so much trauma happening to them is it any wonder that later on they start abusing drugs and alcohol just a deal but he says but you know just how it go down in our community keep that stuff inside it don't matter how hard it be so this is another issue like especially with african-american men we sometimes don't open up and talk about our feelings like it's an issue we keep that stuff inside you know so it's easy to kind of mask it like oh i'm just you know drinking and using to have fun and party but a lot of times we're using that to cover up we're covering up our emotions we're covering up our feelings we're covering up all the terrible stuff that happened to us when we were kids because in certain communities you just don't talk about this stuff it happens in individual households too where people are just raised where you just don't talk about your feelings guess what i'm one of them fast forward them kids is grown and they blow in trees and poppin pills due to chronic anxiety so like let's talk real quick let's talk about hip hop culture right now okay i did a video a while back on lil peep lil peep died from a xanax and fentanyl overdose if you're not watching the news xanax is sometimes getting mixed with fentanyl now it could be deadly but xanax by itself a lot of overdoses from it but you got another rapper named lil xan you know there's this this new kind of hip hop culture it's not really new but they're promoting this kind of substance use but when you think about it when when people are associating this substance use with partying and having fun right you're not looking at it like it's a problem so now my man j cool hits him with that tough love but screw that now i'm older and i love you because you my friend without the drugs i want you to be comfortable in your skin i know you so i know you still keep a lot of stuff in you run it from yourself and you buy in product again i know you say it helps and no i'm not trying to offend but i know depression and drug addiction don't blend so what he's saying this message to his friend he knows his friend right he knows and he says i'm not trying to offend you but like the problem is that you're trying to keep this stuff inside and when you're bottling it up and keeping all these emotions inside or the trauma that you've been through when you're keeping that inside now you're out running trying to get the next drink or the next drug he says i'm not trying to offend because if you watch my video i did about being an addict when people are doing an intervention we get extremely defensive so he's like look dude i know you're going through it i know and i'm sorry but that's that tough love i gotta talk to you about it like i work at a drug and alcohol rehab my entire job is telling people stuff that they don't want to hear and then he says but i know depression and drug addiction don't blend like yes like that's the sick and twisted cycle of addiction people get depressed then they start drinking or using as a solution to that problem but then the problem is is that it makes you even more depressed in which you go back to the drugs or alcohol which makes your depression worse it's this sick and twisted cycle reality distorts and then you get lost in the wind and i've done seen the combo take brothers off the deep end one thing about your demons they bound to catch up one day i'd rather see you stand up and face them then run away going back to the depression he's saying is it distort your reality and he's saying with this combination it takes people out right in 12 step programs you hear people say jails institutions and death those are the only three routes that drug or alcohol addiction takes you so in saying this combination of mental illness and addiction is gonna take you off the deep end and he says i know your demons are bound to catch up with you one day we're looking for a temporary fix right for this massive problem that we have and he's saying like man i wish that you would just stand up and face them instead of trying to run away and we run away through our drinking or our using and now it gets good i understand this message is not the coolest to say but if you're down to try it i know of a better way and you know what my man j Cole says meditate don't meditate so that's right even my man j Cole is telling y'all to meditate and if the message comes from j Cole you gotta do it so if you weren't listening to my voice when i keep telling all of you out there to start meditating listen to j Cole meditate don't meditate all right and in all seriousness though like he was just saying i'd rather see you face them than run away that's exactly what meditation does i will link another video i don't know how many i can put up in the info card so i'll link all the videos i've referenced down in the description below along with some other resources but i did a video about freedom from emotional bondage and it's about meditation our brains have this natural aversion to emotions and thoughts that we don't want to feel so a lot of people turn to drugs and alcohol is a way to escape but with meditation we learn how to sit and get comfortable with the uncomfortable we learn how to embrace and turn towards those negative emotions and thoughts rather than trying to run away and escape this could be drugs alcohol it could be toxic behaviors binge eating gambling sleeping around all sorts of stuff so this is why j Cole's saying meditate don't medicaid medication could be not only in the form of like pills drugs alcohol but you can also be medicating yourself with just all around toxic behaviors so yeah i hope you enjoyed this video i really hope you did the only reason why i didn't use this full song in there is because last time i did a maclemore one youtube was like boom took that thing down for copyright stuff so you are all blessed to hear me drop some addiction bars on you all right but anyways like i said like i said if you can relate to this or if you think this song or this video of the lyrical breakdown might be able to help somebody please do me a favor and share it it's mental health awareness month what do you got better to do right but anyways anyways if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new here i'm always making videos not only about addiction but also about mental health make sure you click that little round subscribe button and if you want to check out some other videos on my channel you can click or tap on one of those thumbnails all right so anyways thanks again so much for watching go check out the new j Cole album and i'll see you next time