The familiarity of the home creates a strange safety net. Yet sometimes, knowing there is a Jump to be made often encapsulates oneself to always look for the same things that comfort us. At some point, the safety net, the familiarity of doing things the same way, will feel like a performance. For some, it becomes the access point to life completion and adding to a successful life. Home carries burdens, expectations, and prescribed roles that we must fulfill due to the sustaining impression that the home certainly needs you to continue to stay and do the same thing. The question is the familiar safe? This isn’t a question about the home one creates but Often the Ones offered to you as well. Still, examining the familiar and unearthing a certain level of unease at a certain juncture becomes necessary. Some sense of reckoning must come to a space where you know there Is more. The Universe, the creator shit, my Niggah, maybe it is one’s compass that points to more than just what is safe. It opens oneself to a space in which all you Have has made you question who you are and where you are going.
I was introduced to Chance the Rapper in the spring of 2013, riding in my neophyte’s car a few weeks after his probate. We were driving to a dive Mexican bar that had an amazing sale on Pitchers with some friends, and he blasted this raspy voice rapper who could sing. I remember feeling like I didn’t know I would encounter a monumental artist that would leave an indelible impression on my college career. Acid Rap the Mixtape was quite frankly a game changer.
I think that mixtape might have saved my life as I was exiting the fourth year of my college career. I was quite frankly depressed and had a lot going on, but that mixtape dragged me to my finish line with one song called Juice, and Everybody’s something nobody is Nothing; I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS FOREVER.
I can say that the Mixtape Coloring Book in 2016 had the same impact. Five months after burying my dad at 24, it felt like I inherited a shit ton of emotions I could not express.
On the Brink of suicidal thoughts juxtaposed to the watchful eyes of my little brothers, Coloring Book came in and soothed my soul, though times were hard. Riding in A Ford Taurus that was perhaps 3 to four months behind on payments. I remember two songs that exorcised the negative thoughts and centered me: Dram Sings Special and Same Drugs. In my humble opinion, I think it is the simplicity and repetitiveness of Chance’s churchy hermeneutic and his growl, howls, and crooning it can be interpreted in the African traditional space as a Medicine Man healing those who were troubled. Chances singing eased my troubled mind; when you listen to music that speaks, you travel inadvertently back to that moment you first heard the song. Where am I going with this someone might be asking; chill, homie, we will get there. I think it is important to hash out that folk out here are plagued with some shit, and my ability to pinpoint every emotion with the music is how I know there Is A testimony in this exercise of written reflection.
Through the healing practices of these songs, I found myself here at this almost whole point. The most influential point for Me was “Same drugs.” The song’s recording, quite frankly, helped me embrace the complexity of how much growing up I Had to do in five months. At that point, I was circled around people my age who had never really experienced the death of a parental figure. I was wrestling between cutting connections and finding myself. The title "Same Drugs" alludes to individuals changing over time and how those changes can strain connections between once-close people. In the song, Chance reminisces and reflects on a former relationship that has evolved or drifted apart.
He uses the metaphor of watching a movie or TV show together to represent the shared experiences of the past, where both individuals were on the same page. However, as they grow older, they no longer have the same interests or priorities, symbolized by the idea of being on "different drugs." This song references Peter Pan’s story portrayed in the film Hook. Through the lyrics, Chance desires to maintain the innocence and connection they once had, wishing they could still enjoy each other's company and feel the same way they used to. However, he acknowledges that people naturally change and grow apart, accepting that they may not be able to recapture what they once had.
If you get a chance to view the video, you will hear a different rendition of the song with features that conjure up a soul-stirring hand-raising experience that would make you even possibly address what needs to Be said. How, at some point, what your experience at a place of departure is from someone or something? We all must go from something familiar. We can even look to Jesus, who, after coming home to speak with folks. He even knew it was time to go. Some will read this and think that I’m tying this to departure because of a lack of faith. But I want you to mature and reflect when it might be time to get the hell on.