Into the Lyrics - Insight Exposed

Lyrics:

"You're now in a game where only time can tell/

Survive the droughts, I wish you well - hold up/
Survive the droughts? I wish you well?/
How sick am I? I wish you health"

- JAY Z

    

               

               Trying to respond to these lyrics right away is a bit difficult to do due to the vague nature of the rhyme. It's something you have to read twice to understand, at least in the simplest of ways. So excluding all aspects outside the lyrics, let's look at the first half of those four bars.

"You're now in a game where only time can tell/ Survive the droughts, I wish you well - hold up"

               By analyzing just that, we can see the words are simple despite sounding like a riddle. Nothing complex. Nothing that a normal person wouldn't understand. JAY Z is keeping his audience in mind. The tone of the full sentence however, is where it gets interesting. The sentence is eerie in nature; and "eerie" with regards to the diction of the words. It sounds like a warning. It sounds like JAY Z is telling you to be careful as if bad things could happen in which case you would need some luck. As we read even closer, we'll see how this meaning is true. For now, let's look at the second half of these lyrics.

"Survive the droughts? I wish you well?/ How sick am I? I wish you health"

               Going along with the analysis of the first half, JAY Z uses the next part to ask questions which the audience may have. He asks three questions, two which re-state the first part and one which asks a question the audience may have, "Is JAY Z crazy?" Unlike the previous interrogatory statements, the last sentence is declarative illustrating JAY Z's hopes for you to stay alive and well in this "game," whatever it may be.

               These lyrics, although part of a song, seem more like a riddle. This riddle is the genre in a specific rhetorical situation. The situation is unknown however if we read only the words and know absolutely nothing about the background. So let's get some details. This song is from an album based on a movie of called, American Gangster; a movie about Frank Lucas, a gangster who created quite the reputation as heroin smuggler. The situation for the stimulation of these words is now known.

               Now let's re-analyze JAY Z's lyrics. By looking at the first two lines, we see the word "game." In the movie's context, "game" refers to the drug smuggling business. He is basically stating the drug "game" is one where only time will tell how successful you are, mostly due to the dangers of it. Additionally, he mentions "survive the droughts" which means to get through the tough times; to do that, he says, "I wish you well."

               The next two lines, in the context of the movie's background are interesting too. He re-states the second line. However, not only is he asking it as a question this time in order to clarify his statements, the words are mentioned again as a play on the word "well." When you yell into a well, you hear an echo hence the reason why the same words are mentioned again in JAY Z's lyrics. The last part, once again in context of the movie, states, "How sick am I?/ I wish you health." This shows that JAY Z is "sick" in the sense that he has been negatively affected by the drug "game" and wishes that you not suffer the same fate as him.     

               From a music industry perspective, the lyrics hold significance as well as the audience changes from aspiring drug dealers to aspiring musicians. The music business is a "game" in which success is dependent only upon the music you put out over time and different circumstances. You have to "survive" those "droughts" where your music isn't successful in order to come out on top. Fortunately, JAY Z wishes you well in an effort to make sure this doesn't happen. In fact, the words, "wish" and "well" create another allusion, this time to a wishing well. The second line is extremely clever as you can see and is arguably, a triple entendre!

               He questions the second line however addressing the complexity of the situation and keeping it as an "echo" in your ears before you think about entering the music "game." And the last sentence serves a strictly arrogant purpose of illustrating how "sick" - meaning "good" - JAY Z is with his rapping by using lines like the second one to have multiple meanings. He wishes you "health" so you can recognize the skill he has and take the advice he gave in the previous lines.

               After thoroughly analyzing JAY Z's lyrics, it is clear to see how words can hold so many different meanings when mentioned in different contexts. I guess that's one of the main reasons why rap music is so intriguing and why JAY Z is a particularly amazing artist. It is purely music to someone new to the genre but poetry to someone completely involved. However, after more and more training, or contextual details, in the specific field, the listener can draw better conclusions, as shown by the analysis of the above lyrics.