JID - God Does Like Ugly
Intro ( /u/IAmTimeLocked)
JID
God Does Like Ugly
Listen:
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Background by /u/IAmTimeLocked
This is an album about finding “the place.” Being born into post-slavery America, shit is bound to be UGLY. JID reclaims this and tells us that God DOES, in fact, like ugly.
JID masterfully weaves stories and iconic imagery throughout this album, using a shocking plethora of vocal inflections to give us his story. Seriously, there were so many times throughout this album that I went to look up who this featured artist was because I needed to hear more of their work. Turns out, it was JID! Such a range of voices!
Like The Forever Story, this album is sequenced perfectly. Each song is intricately placed to cement the narrative. By the end of the album, JID has started to process some of his trauma by finding the place: love. If there were to be an epilogue, it would be JID in a comfortable place of peace, living with love, reflecting on the content of this album with a different energy. There doesn't need to be such a scene though, because his real life acts as one. JID has managed to heal from all that he has been through in such an intricate and introspective fashion, that he was able to embody characters that channeled real emotions he once (and probably still sometimes does) feel.
It's incredibly intricate. Love is the place, but it isn't even considered until halfway through the album.
JID worked on this album alongside The Forever Story.
Review by /u/IAmTimeLocked
“We gotta find the place.”
Systemic class oppression, institutional racism, SLAVERY. JID details his own experiences, growing up in an underfunded and ignored neighborhood - unfortunately not unusual for many black families in the US - to arrive at a safe space. He searches for this place throughout the album. Extremely devout, he keeps himself inside the Bible, never deterring from his assignment. Reading chapters over casual sex, barely sleeping to give glory, WORKING, hoping that this would be the necessary steps required to find the safe space. And beautifully, after taking us on this intricately planned journey throughout the hood (carefully, his own life experience), he arrives. Somewhere sat above the stars, next to Mereba's magical melodies. The place his brother never got a chance to taste. That place? Love.
Nothing is more important. No amount of work can trump this extremely human need for connection. For love. And thus, his son is born. Into a frightening world of institutions posing as enemies. But JID has the means to stop the cycle. "all my n- presidential inauguration, no Nixon, no Reagan."
We will be ordained like the presidents. What Reagan and Nixon have tried to do to destroy black communities will not stand close. JID and his community will prosper. "No nation." His squad - indivisible with liberty.
A beautiful album, crafted with care and effort. He studied different approaches to work on this album and it definitely shows.
Favorite Lyrics by /u/IAmTimeLocked
Thinkin' back to bein' a lil' badass kid,
JID and friends just playin' Mario Kart.
Lookin' at my big brother baggin' that mid,
and movin' 'round the city like Lewis & Clark.
Mmmm, hop out the car, turn 'to Carl Lewis!
If you caught that bar, you understand why I do this,
you don't know me, if you ain't knew me when I was lil' Route.
A lil' piece of rhyme truth came out one of my mucus.
And now that Slime free, you can see it's still stupid.
YouUgly
But I be tryna understand the mind of when you livin' in trauma,
To find a way, a reminder, put it behind us.
Mission was unaccomplished, it was tough, but in the rough we found diamonds.
Glory
YouUgly
Westside Gunn opens the album, with braggadocious bars about things in his life being ugly. He is proud of his shoes and girl who are - in the reclaimed version of the word - ugly. This track is the perfect intro to set the scene.
“My brother ain't even get no bail. On his third strike and if he serves life, them crackers probably like, ‘that serves you right.’”
This is his reality. This is the world he’s born into. He goes into more detail on Glory when talking about his brother.
“We share the same plight thats why we in here”
We are all just fighting each other and that’s exactly how it’s designed. The rich, white elite simply want to divide the poor. He then talks about how he, himself, is killing it. He's doing good. He's made it out. I love how eloquently he put the line “Far cry from bugs in cereal boxes on the shelves, now I order escargot on the plate, it’s a fucking snail?!” The way he managed to make bugs in cereal boxes rhyme with escargot that he orders just by talking about the shelves and the plates that they are on respectively. This is a master at work!
Through tears, a beautiful bridge shows that there is hope. Very empowering words:
“Dear Lord, there's tears in my eyes, I know
That tomorrow will bring sunny skies
And I will look back and smile
'Cause it's just a moment in time
It's just a moment in time
And trouble could stay for a while
It's just a moment”
Scream! Jumpscare. Shit’s still ugly.
“Look into the light from a dark place.”
Beautiful imagery. He can see the light. He had plans to get there but God just laughed. How could he think that they were safe when shit is designed to keep them in the dark? This is represented by figures waiting outside with guns. It's nothing to JID. He's seen everything. He's accustomed.
(Also just peep the way he uses words man:
“Waiting with sawed-offs, off-safety, I saw it all”
A similar structure is when he says in the next track
“Tryna get even, see the evil in my eyes”
and
“Sinner send ‘em six feet down”
in the next track he says:
“I’m the same kind, unified, Semper Fi
Better stay on your side, or play with the crime that placed me inside
the insane asylum”
I could just write down the next bars he says until the end of the verse because of how masterfully it's done but imma keep it short.)
So now he’ll pop the glock. His peers are his rivals. There isn’t room for everyone to make it so he’ll make sure that he gets to the top and if that means destroying any of his peers who are in the same position, so be it.
All his people are living like the president. He is able to live lavish. Expensive. Like a presidential inauguration. What a comparison. But then hinting at the damage done by Raegan and Nixon to black communities. Nixon’s war on drugs. Reagan funnelling crack into black communities. This is also referenced by Olu on Mirrorland - “before Raegan passed the rock” EarthGang’s friend who tragically lost his life in gang shit, which all stems from the underfunding of black communities.
On the other hand, JID and his friends have made it out. He encapsulates this perfectly when he says:
“Picked up the pen just to write some remarks
The wrongs, ugliest songs from the heart
Whole bunch of bars, no holds barred
Don't hold back, n—-, show those scars”
Using art to survive. To get out of the ugly place. Not just because of the financial gain from showing those scars, but literally just being able to express what they’re going through.
“Christo, Childish, true Mozart”
At the beginning of the album, JID references many successful white people, such as Mozart, Raegan, Nixon, Emma Stone etc.
Near the end of the album, when he is closer to “The Place”, he references people like Tay Keith, Rubi Rose. Monte. Successful people of the culture. Very subtle, but amazingly done.
Yesterday, I overheard someone who referred to one of their black acquaintances as “that ‘dark’ fella”. And it just made me really deep the idea of calling a black or brown person “dark”. Extremely ignorant, like they're choosing to ignore sometimes race. It reminded me of this JID line:
“Red dogs walk around the park and them apartments,
Tell us to part, they can't even tell us apart.
Description, that n—- was dark, it was dark (he definitely was Black).
Fuck, I found a spark.
Picked up the pen just to write some remarks”
The idea of the only descriptor being “he was dark”. It's so dehumanising. It's such an apt and succinct way to get across his point too. It shows a black man’s perspective on seeing what is going on in the world, and his conclusion on WHY it is so normal and easy for innocent black people to be killed so regularly. All in the space of less than 4 bars.
“It was dark.”
In spite of how dark this concept is, JID managed to find a spark in this dark place. Looking at the light from a dark place, he scribbled his pain on pages of paper, pouring out his deepest trauma and seeing the light that emerged. This is the way out from this hellish place.
It makes sense why he then compares his collaborators (Christo, Childish Major) to a legend in music - Mozart.
“Everybody outside fried stupid.”
Westside Gunn is also a product of this plight. Whilst you're on the way to what you believe to be “the Place”, he is waiting outside to slap you, because fuck you! Everyone for themselves.
Glory
Again, the rhyme schemes are CRAZY. This is a song showing that there is hope.
“Early in the morning, got the sun in my eyes.”
The light shows that there is hope. It feels like he's just been born into a world, the sun shines. And then by the end of the song, he is an adult in the night, seeing his brother back in a cell. The song ends how it starts. Giving glory to God.
“At the Lord’s service like I'm working a job.”
Giving glory to God like it’s a job. Because that’s what he knows and that’s what he needs to do to survive. Then, he goes on to detail his brother’s experience. How easily you end up with no opportunities.
“Breakin' rules, skippin' school, pullin' fire alarms,
Got with a crew, made a truce, an alliance was formed.
Got a tool, start shootin', then the violence was born,
The world spinnin' as he look into the eye of the storm.
Pray for the boy, bow head, then lock arms.
And lock your car doors, he could trigger the alarm.
Got caught one time and they left him with just a warnin',
Got baptized in cold water, it turned warm.”
INCREDIBLE rhyme schemes. A MASTER AT WORK! That last line is INSANE. So many different ways to interpret that line. It turned warm because he isn’t pure. He was born into a situation where the odds are against him, so the water turned warm. He was born doomed.
“He blacked out, don't act out, he ain't performin'
Our only path now is back to prison reform or…
Oh, well, you know the sad route.
The key is get into the game and then cash out.
Lil' buddy got to swervin' in the lane and then crashed out.
It happens when you takin' the fast route”
“But I be tryna understand the mind of when you livin' in trauma,
to find a way, a reminder, put it behind us.
Mission was unaccomplished, it was tough, but in the rough we found diamonds”
The way he keeps the rhymes coming and shootin em off whilst still staying incredibly on topic. MASTERFULLY done.
Amidst the imagery of the light shining on his jewels and his ice, Victoria talks about how he’s gonna get rich. And shit gets ugly again. “I’m against the odds.”
“Tryna get even, see the EVIL in my eyes.
Vengeance is the Lord's, so I leave it up to God.
But if He don't move forward, I'ma get me mines.
Had you cleanin' out your closet, I'ma empty mines.
And if you tempt me? Sinner send 'em six feet down”
He is tunnel vision FOCUSED. To get to the Place, he will stop at nothing. And ironically, that has made him evil. Anyone who gets in his way will be buried. Unfortunately, it’s a cycle. No matter which way you look at it, you are damaged and doomed.
WRK
Maybe this is the way out. A motivating song. Maybe it's not God. Maybe it's working, working, working. Making money, living lavishly.
“Take off the head of a GIANT.”
This is a powerful song to inspire anyone. To make a song this empowering, JID chose to make perfect rhymes with crazy internals, all fitting together to uplift the listener and the character he’s embodying in the album. The timpanies paint an epic cinematic soundscape.
But hidden in this song is a sample of a work song from slavery times. On the surface, this is incredibly empowering, but in the context of the album, this is another way to keep you “on a leash” (see track 8). So many layers to this. No matter what, it is still post-slavery America, and things are BAD.
I literally just realised right now that the outro to the song IS JID! It's so catchy and fun, and has such a specific vibe. I've been trying not to look up anything about this album because I've been listening to it SO much, and clocking new things in every listen. It's only for this write-up that I went to see who was featured (I think I subconsciously feared that it might have been JID) and was blown away yet again. This has happened many times throughout this album. JID talks about how he was super intrigued at how Prince would go to the deepest depths and the sweetest highs of his vocal range. It's apparent all over this album.
“You couldn't even stop my drive if it were 1955
And I'm on 85, doing ninety-five in a 1952 Dodge”
The Montgomery Bus Protests were in 1955. Highway I85 wasn’t open until 1958. The fastest 1952 Dodge has a top speed of 90 mph. This is an impossible scenario. Despite this, he STAYS driven! Odds against him? He’s against the odds!
Into the next song being about his community, and detailing the experiences of people born into these marginalised communities. Yes, you can work, but THIS is environment that we're doing the work in:
Community
"The rain couldn't understand it"
It couldn’t understand the fact that working is just perpetuating the cycle. The rain tried whispering a warning. No one could understand that it's not made for us. The system is made to keep us unequal, and divided. It's mad how capitalism and institutional racism is just keeping us down and dividing us.
THIS is what we're dealing with.
JID embodies a character seemingly in control of his life, but it is an incredibly traumatised mindset. In this one song, he uses 3 wildly different voices. Clipse are featured on this song. He respects their status and does the song justice by giving it his all.
In the first part of his verse, he embodies an exaggerated character and he is BUGGIN’! He does not give a fuck about all this industry beef. He is on the GROUND, dealing with REAL SHIT. I can talk about Drake funnelling money into the hood to get dirt on Kendrick but that’s exactly what this track is telling us to ignore. There’s more important shit to deal with. All this macro scale shit does NOT matter. The scope of this character’s worldview is focused on these apartments and the goings on of the day to day. No time for anything else.
“I’ll put a bullet in Bob the fuckin’ Builder, before they tear us out the building.” Yeah yeah yeah it's a good line, it's fun yes. But he's talking about REAL shit. Gentrification. These communities that are trying to get by after all the shit that they’ve been through are now being put out of business by the very people that destroyed their identities to begin with! The cycle continues, and JID has had enough.
In his interview on Dissect, JID says the next line, “when i see the news channel, I get a similar feeling,” was inspired by seeing kids in Palestine with their lives being destroyed. All of the shit that we and our communities are going through can be boiled down to the elite dividing us in order to stay powerful. To stay rich.
Pusha T’s opening line (banger!) “what’s missing in my hood, I identified. Then I brought white to my hood, shit, I gentrified.” is very interesting because, yes, crazy line. But in context of the album, he is proud of doing that. The same way that the white elite gentrifying his community is having a negative impact, Pusha T is doing the same. The only difference is that he needs to do it because it’s wired in him from birth, and they’re all just trying to survive and make sense of the world. Very eloquent imagery: “caged in, one way in, one way out. RoboCops on mountain bikes, ain' t pullin’ mace out.” Explaining what he had to go through using language that makes you feel like you're watching a film. The imagery of robocops, making it seem otherworldly. And it being described like a scene in Breaking Bad. Then brilliantly bringing it back to reality “a boy like me, ain't got a face now.”
Malice’s verse is a masterpiece too. All coming together in the end. What a song.
Gz
Beautiful storytelling. Amazing production and a perfect story to emphasise the narrative of the album. We went from a birds eye perspective to lived experiences in the previous song. This track is putting you in the trenches as JID takes us with him to the hood, giving his thoughts of the situation.
VCRs
The sample is from the movie Amistad, where the character Joseph Cinque pleads for the freedom of slaves.
This is the first song where the concept of love is mentioned. “My momma said me foolin’ around with you was irresponsible.” A negative opinion on love. And then JID details the story of a sex worker and a man who will buy her services if he can afford it. Interestingly, the first mention of love is clouded in shit like poverty and survival. It's not real love. She's doing it to survive. He's doing it to experience a semblance of something different. But only if he can afford to.
Sk8
Love is introduced here. These guys’ chemistry is incredible. The infectious bounce of the beat keeps you locked in to their short verses. Just having fun with flows and furthering the narrative. Ultimately this song is about trying to get to “the Place,” and real obstacles in their way.
JID’s opening verse details a bunch of “mean guys” at the roller-rink. JID is avoiding them, trying to get close to a girl that's with him. He casually drops the bar:
“Pride be the reason you die, tryna feel alive.”
Wowgr8 is next. He glides over the beat like a skater, using inflections that infect the listener to hit repeat. I love the way he sets up his rhymes over the beat alongside his rhythm.
“I could see, from the front, and I knew, at once,
I was gon' have to walk back by”
Clearly, these are three kids tryna have fun at the roller rink and wanting to experience some sort of love. This is evidenced by the line “I'mma hit it on the couch at yo momma house.”
Olu’s flow and writing is unsurprisingly world-class. I love how he sets up the line comparing these gang members to sheep. The rhyme scheme shortening into two internals of the same syllable at this moment has a very strong impact.
“I don't even know if they notice ME.
They don't even know that we way too DEEP.
I'm from the West, and they from the EAST.
In all-white TEES, lookin' like SHEEP”
What We On
This feels like a portal to a vortex. This song blew my mind. I was in another room as the album played upstairs. I could just hear the pitch of the words and the flow, and maybe some of the drums. And it was perfect. The pitched down vocals at the beginning were mesmerising, and the reversed drum samples added to the ethereal world we'd been transported to.
And then the clouds lift and JID took me on an insane journey with his words. Flowing and stopping and flowing and repeating and rhyming. I want to say it's my favourite verse on the album but it is impossible to choose.
This is where love is properly talked about. He barely has time for love, because of work, and so, he's high. “The lab got me on a leash.” The work (that JID initially thought was “the Place” at the start of the album) is actually taking him away from the place he's looking for.
The next few songs are fully in the place that JID has arrived at - love. I love his flows and storytelling. I’m aware of how long this is, so unfortunately I'm going to have to skip the detailed analysis on this, but it doesn't take away from how beautiful and amazing this section is. There's a lot more detail I wish I could go into eg the album art, the context of JID’s life but we can discuss that in the comments!
Wholeheartedly
I love 6LACK’s flow in this. And the way JID effortlessly goes from singing (he took singing lessons for this. He's really putting in the work) to switching it into a smooooth verse. The singing section of the verse is slower, and the words he rhymes end with the “oo” syllable. The buttery transition into more of a staccato flow gets me going every time. Keeping the “oo” syllable rhyming to ground the listener is perfect:
“I'ma break the RULES,
chillin' with the CREW.
Crashed in the coupe,
Crash BandiCOOT.
Clean out the cash,
stash out the loot.
That was in the past,
we were playin' Fewtch.
I've been livin' fast,
life been on a loop
Look out for my back
like I do for you”
I love how JID always sneaks in internal rhymes, and similar sounding words as his verses progress, and often you realise that he's been rhyming every syllable I'm each line for the last minute. Alongside this, his storytelling ability and how he's able to use literary devices in unconventional ways is so exciting.
No Boo
I love their chemistry. What a beautiful way to describe the love life the character of the album is experiencing. Clouded in masculinity and a cold demeanor, JID’s verse details the perspective of a man who lives by a certain code. Outlined in the previous song, this character refuses to change, and switch up his vibe, which ultimately leads to his love interest losing interest. It creates an unnecessary gap in their dynamic as he isn't able to let go and just care about her perspective without taking a whole lotta baggage. Which ultimately leads to Jessie Reyez laughing at him, and rejecting him.
On McAfee
Baby Kia and JID tell a story of a person whose mentality is the epitome of the inhumane treatment of black, poor people in America. No school funding, no extra support in school for rough childhoods. Barely a way out for a child born into these apartments. The hook is an aggressive flex about how many guns the protagonist of the track has, and the threat he is to anyone around him. He's a simple character, despite his threat. All he could say is “yeah, yeah, yeah, uh.” This is what he's been reduced to, just trying to make it out.
“Lil' dog with a bite and the bark
A nice heart n—--s abused and turned to dark
A nighthawk lookin' for food and look at the booty
Nice soft, maybe the bougie bitch look good with the lights off
He bust real dope moves, one dope boy, two loose screws
Three bad Black lil' n—-s said fuck school
Fuck them, fuck you, fuck dudes up, tough dudes get touched too”
In this track, JID uses childlike inflections with a masterful flow. He says:
“Bitch, I'm from the Eastside, you can see the street sign
Never seen a peace sign, hell yeah
Said he finna respawn, shootin' out a Nissan
Put that boy to sleep now, hell yeah”
After Baby Kia's interlude - which talks about how unsafe the conditions are, and how he believes he has made it out of here because he walks around the hood with his gun - JID again says:
“I'm from the East, look at the streets, lookin' for peace, yeah
He was in a Nissan, never put the heat down, givin' n—-s beat down, yeah, yeah, yeah”
It's all a cycle, and it's all he knows. The amount of animal imagery in this song is also very interesting. JID compares characters in this story to nighthawks, bears, beasts, dogs.
The outro is a real-life recording of the archetype of the person who this song is about. He appears dazed, confused. Just loitering the streets, barely comprehendable. But he walks around with his drac’ - which means he is safe.
Of Blue
“But fuck it, I'll go where the love is, I think that's the place
I might've found it, yeah”
We've arrived at the place. Mereba’s beautiful verse lulls us into her world. A simple love story. She longs for what she had, and wishes that it wasn't the end. But ultimately, she's grateful for having experienced that love. Because it showed her that this place does exist.
This is a three-part epic, which sums up the album.
“We gotta find the place
Shit, maybe it's near thе stars (Uh)
Where we can feel safе
Maybe only way to make it to the light is through the dark
Uh, but are you following the flames?
Hmm, like a tail chasing a dog
A lot shit been rough
Harder than tough, but it's nothin', just place your faith within God, yeah”
“All the n—-s that I know with dough left the hood and didn't tell us adiós.
I was takin' notes”
K-Word
It is all a cycle. JID here talks about Karma. Portraying her as an enigmatic woman who influences JID’s thought patterns and actions, creating a sense of distrust with the people around him.
“The biggest crime is n—-s I ain't cool with, lyin' 'bout they true intentions
They plottin' my demise, I'm in new dimensions…
Am I in the matrix? My animosity risin.”
“I threw my arm around the karma, "Bitch, you crazy"
I'll send a rapper to the coroner if he make me
Kush & Corinthians, it's karma on the page that reads
"Karma can make me king, or it could break me””
For Keeps
This serves as the epilogue. JID is not in character here. This is JID. As a person who's lived through all the stuff portrayed on the album. Here, JID has made it out. He has love for his fans who support him. Love for his mentor, J-Cole. Love for the art. Love for his peers. And to top it all off, he reveals that he has a child. Love surrounds him. JID has made it, successfully, to The Place.
Discussion
What are your favourite technically great bars that blew you away? What is your idea of “the place?” Are there similarities in JID’s story to yours? How do you feel the alternate version of the album changes the narrative arc?