Go with what makes sense.
Throughout life, we often overlook things as they are and focus on how we want them to be. In Jay’s moment of clarity, he talks about struggling with change and people’s perceptions of him. The first verse covers Jay’s relationship with his father and offers some great guiding perspectives on forgiveness, but that’s another post.
In the 2nd verse, Jay talks about his career, and I found the nature of creativity enlightening.
It took Jay a while to break out because he didn’t have whatever x-factor record labels were looking for. Instead, he built a following with the streets and finally got the attention of labels. Jay then says he dumbed down his art to be commercially accessible and make life-changing money, after which he became criticized as a “sell-out.” Then he talks about being pulled between his desire to be a skillful lyricist and his perspective that highly technical lyrics aren’t appealing on a grand scale.
In this description, Jay highlights how much perception plays into our lives. Not all of us are professional creatives, but all your actions are creations you bring into the world, and we are all creators in that way.
We often hesitate to be creative for fear of how people think of us.
I haven’t posted in a while, and not for lack of ideas or writer’s block, but because I want to put out great content. The problem is that I want to control the perception of my creations and make the excuse that what I’ve made isn’t good enough to post rather than just creating.
Jay’s whole point is that we as creators let our lives be guided by how we want people to perceive us. People will have praise or criticism whether you make too much money or if you don’t make enough. If you make a fine art or if you make pop-friendly art. If you write esteemed literature or shitposts on IG lol.
Don’t play to what you think people want; look inward and go with what makes sense.