Lyrics and Lessons: Part I

Hello everyone!

        I hope you all are having an amazing day. Music is something that we all enjoy and it can help us get through tough times. Music often validates our emotions; if we feel happy, there are songs that help us keep that dopamine high and we jam to it. When we feel sad, there may be songs we listen to that make us feel that the artist understands what we are going through. Music is a great coping mechanism that helps us feel better and understood. Music has always meant a lot to me, I love deciphering the meaning behind lyrics and truly listening to what the artist is saying. I think it would be interesting to start a series of forum posts where I analyze song lyrics that have a deep meaning and may be able to help those who are feeling the same way or going through similar situations.

Song Analysis

"Lace It" by Juice WRLD feat. Eminem

TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of drug use, profane lyrics

        I did not listen to Juice much before his passing, but after delving into his discography I believe he was an amazing songwriter. To give a quick backstory to this song, Juice passed away due to substance use in December 2019. He would still go on to have a lot of his music released years after his passing, including "Lace It" which came out in the past year. When the song came out and I began listening to it, I was initially disappointed with Juice's lyrics. As the title suggests, his entire verse was about the substances he uses. I thought that was a little distasteful for his team to release given what happened to Juice, but then Eminem started rapping. While Juice's verse was mostly glorifying substance use with lines like "roll it up, lace it, pop a few to chase it", Eminem decided to flip the script. Eminem spends his verse discussing the horrible effects that substance use can have on a person and how he understands how it starts and often ends.

        Eminem spent many years of his life battling addiction and almost lost. He begins the verse with "You pop some [substance] first, it gets progressively worse. Try your best to reverse, unsuccessfully flirtin' with certain death and revertin' to your [substance] urges. The f***in devil he lurks, lose your best friend he smirks." He discusses how when people start with a substance and then progressively begin a habit of using it. This forms an addiction that is difficult for many to overcome. He then begins relating this to the genre of hip-hop and how many rappers fall down this spiral. Not only do they form addiction, but they make the substances that they use a part of their music, as Juice did in his verse. The many people who listen to these artists, often kids and teenagers, are now exposed to them. This creates an entire culture of substance use. Eminem goes on to say "So many who OD be way too young to go see me. I was lucky, my escape was narrow and do not think that I take it for granted that I'm still here." He follows that lyric by listing several substances that have killed many hip-hop artists to reinforce how huge a problem addiction is across many communities.

        Eminem ends his verse by saying, “Addiction’s like a f***in vicious cycle, Juice we will forever miss you. To the younger generation, I ain’t lecturin’ you, but man just be careful when you” which leads into Juice WRLD’s chorus saying “roll it up, lace it.”  Eminem understands that his verse is not going to stop anyone from partaking in substances, so he clarifies that he’s not just some old man telling young people what to do. The goal of his verse was to put into perspective how many lives in hip-hop alone have been lost in recent years and promote awareness of the effects a substance can have on a person. I think it was absolutely beautiful how they took a song Juice WRLD wrote glorifying substance use before his passing and had Eminem, who has been through a lot regarding substance use, flip the message Juice was saying to promote addiction awareness.

Questions:

What do you think about this song?

Do you have any suggestions for songs with powerful lyrics? I love exploring different genres and artists that I don’t normally listen to!