An Analysis Of Cole's Song 'Intro' By Langston Hughes

Hughes to Cole

Does time change the message that can come from one’s words? Or does time just alter the message to make it relevant to the people of the time. Rapper J. Cole may have done that with a poem that was written by the famous poet Langston Hughes, but not intentionally. Although the same emotions could’ve been at work in the making of Cole’s song “Intro” that were present in Hughes when he wrote “Let America Be America Again”. Both works emphasizing people becoming free from something, by two educated black men from two different time periods, but what gives these two artists this mind set to gain such an oneness with the world around them?

On February 1, 1902 Langston Hughes was born as James Mercer Langston Hughes in Joplin, Missouri.

Hughes' mother, Carrie Hughes was an educated woman, who was a gifted actress and poet. His Father, James Nathaniel aspired to become a writer, but after being turned away from the bar exam, which had an all-white examining board, his father moved to Cuba. After his father left, Hughes mother was his primary caretaker and they constantly moved as she searched for work. Around the age of 12 he began to spend more time with his grandmother, Mary Leary Langston, the first black woman to attend Oberlin College (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Hughes' grandmother inspired him to love books and stressed him to learn the importance of education. She was a proud woman and is said to be a great storyteller. Mary died in 1914. “For the next year, Hughes was cared for by friends of his grandmother, a couple he called Auntie and Uncle Reed.” (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Soon after the death of his grandmother Hughes' rejoined with his mother, who had been living in Lincoln, Illinois. There he graduated grammar school. The next year they moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he attended Central High School. There he was a park of the school magazine, which he began to place his early work into (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Although his true talents were shown during the 1920’s.
Hughes reached his prime during the Harlem Renaissance, which was a literary, artistic, and cultural movement between the 1920s to the mid-1930s that created a new type of black person. “Chiefly literary, the Renaissance included the visual arts but excluded jazz, despite its parallel emergence as a black art form.” (The Harlem Renaissance). Most of the literature written during this time emphasized on the reality of black life, or a “New Negro”. Although the more conservative blacks feared that the depiction of the ghetto realism decrease any chances of racial equality. Really the art, literature, music, and poetry became a way of destroying the black stereotypes. Langston Hughes is highly influenced by the spirit of the time, by adding rhymes inspired by jazz and blues music as he did in the poem “Let America be America again.” A poem about getting rid of racism, so America can be the great country it once was and was depicted to be. He tells the different people across the country and the things they are bound to in this country to in the country for them to make a living. America is said to be the land of the free, but where is the freedom in living in the struggle because of how you look or your wealth? Nowadays people make themselves struggle.
On January 28th rapper J. Cole was born as Jermaine Lamarr Cole in Frankfurt, Germany. Cole's mother was a white German, and his father was a black soldier. They separated before Cole and his mother moved to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where she was re-married to another soldier (J. Cole Talks Rough Childhood On '2014 Forest Hills Drive). Cole experienced a life of poverty so his mom could continue to afford the home they lived in. Cole’s dreams of becoming a rapper started at the age of 14 with the help of local rappers and the support of his family. During his teen years Cole rapped under the stage name "Therapist". “He moved to New York City as soon as he graduated from high school He enrolled in St. John's University on an academic scholarship where he majored in communication and minored in business, graduating magna cum laude.” (J. Cole Biography). After which he worked as a bill collector for some time, then he released his mixtape "The Come Up" in 2007. Hip-hop was a culture mainly among blacks, built from rhymes to the rhythm of drum machines. This type of music created an entire movement for generations to come. It was just for fun at first, but soon it became something more. The music got louder and the lyrics got more personal, embodied with so much emotion, it began to make some people scared. This edge the artist a voice, I chance to make a change. Today hip-hop is one of the most popular genres of music ever known, but it’s not the same. Nowadays lots of rappers just rap about money, sex, and drugs. There isn’t really a real message behind the music anymore, but J. Cole is one of the artists that respects the art and always has a story to tell, and since he has claimed fame as a rapper he’s steered away from the ego that grows with it. In a sense you can say that he’s “free”, just as he describes in the “Intro” of his 2014 album “2014 Forest Hill Drive”. Where he gives a variety of examples of what some people are bound to in the modern day, and says that if they lived without them they could achieve anything they want. Sort of like “Let America be America again” but not quite.
These two rhythmic works of these men, both focus on the freedom of living, though the only difference is the problems that occurred during the two time periods.

Hughes lived through a time where racism is still highly apparent in America, which is why his poem is more so about the relief of racial discrimination to achieve the dreams that America promised. Once a free land, it became tarnished by the greed of monopolies, hate between skin color, and greed of the wealthy over the hard work of the poor. As Cole's song is more so about how people can reach their full potential when they stop trying to be someone they’re not. Stop feeding into what others around you are doing and be yourself to become truly happy with life. In a way it seems as if Hughes is telling people how much opportunity is in the world, and Cole is telling them how to achieve those opportunities. Like is Hughes saying, “O, let my land be a land where Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.” All so Cole to follow up with “Free from pain, free from scars, Free to sing, free from bars, Free my dawgs, you're free to go, Block gets shot, the streets is cold, Free to love, to each his own, Free from bills, free from pills, You roll it loud, the speakers blow, Life get hard, you eat your soul, It clears your mind, learn to fly, Then reach the stars, you take your time, And look behind and said what I can, Look how far I done came, They say that dreams come true, And when they do that there's a beautiful thing”. Both have a set goal of telling people what it takes to fulfil your dream and be happy with it. The only difference is the way to achieve it due to the gap between their

times.
No matter what time one has lived to experience similar messages can still be relayed to the people of one’s current time. These men have both made a grand influence on people, especially Langston, who died in 1967 (Langston Hughes) and is still making an impact on writers all over the world today in 2015. Their background has nothing to do with their feelings of freedom, but it’s the world around them that does. People will always seem to be bound to something, but what is that worth if they aren’t free to achieve a dream worth dreaming.