They Call Him Era Because It’s His Time: JD Era
A week after Nas’s Life Is Good hit the top spot on Billboard, you can appreciate that music is going back to a place where people are searching for some sort of meaning from lyrics. People are becoming less satisfied with the intellectual simplicity that it takes to rhyme about only cars, “hoes”, more cars and more hoes.
Everywhere, everyone wants significance. Not empty lyrics about empty lives.
Who can’t relate to “real G shit, dudes told me I would never be shit” (JD Era) or, “I wish common sense was more common” (JD Era, again) rather than some lyric about some dime a dozen dude trying to romance some dime a dozen chick, in an insultingly expensive car? We get it, you’re irresistible, your money is irresistible, but at the end of the day, who wants to be with someone so shallow or listen to such shallow music religiously? Exactly, no one will admit to such a thing, because everyone knows how absurd it is. And if they were to admit it, they would be written off as being a jerk, self involved, an asshole, etc, etc…
While, I doubt that there is a single rapper who hasn’t rapped about hoes, money and cars, and even JD does, yet, when you are great, you understand that too is a facet of your personality, of your art, but it does not comprise and consist solely and utterly everything that you are or wish to be. Great artists know this. That’s why Kanye can write a lyric like “What she order, fish fillet”? and still understand the need and depth of “refresh the page and restart the memory, re-spark the soul and rebuild the energy, we stopped the ignorance, we killed the enemies”.
Because of all the information that is thrown at us daily, the sheer vast amount of it, the world has evolved. Our senses are heightened to perceive bullshit and discard it immediately so we may make room for what really matters, what really triggers our mind and souls.
This is all my way of saying that I like, no scratch that, that I really like JD Era. He’s real, he’s human, he’s not just about showing off, he’s about showing his flaws too, so we can not be so embarrassed and hurt by our own misgivings and find humility and strength in our own weaknesses. He’s going in the right direction. Just go with him!
