The song of my generation just came out, and it’s Drake’s “Emotionless.”
It’s one of the most notable songs on the rap side of his newest album, the double-sided “Scorpion,” and cleverly samples Mariah Carey’s 1991 “Emotions.” The title of the song is both a reference to the source material and an ironic statement, because if you have followed Drake’s music from the beginning, you know he is one of the most emotional rappers right now. That irony, which carries through the lyrics, is what makes the song an anthem of my generation. The second verse gets right into it, revealing something many of us do when we try to avoid dealing with emotions.
Missin’ out on my years
There’s times when I wish I was where I was
Back when I used to wish I was here
Often times we forget to enjoy where we are in life and we take good times for granted. Growing up, many people wished they were out of their parents house on their own and in another city, but we’ve quickly realized the grass is not as green as it looked from our side of the yard. Even when we get everything we wished for, we realize it’s not what it seemed. We miss the simple things like sitting for hours talking to our parents, even if it did turn into a lecture. We miss the peace we enjoyed before we were consumed by the stresses of life, the bills, the disappointments, the heartbreaks, and all without having a shoulder to cry on.
Scrollin’ through life and fishin’ for praise
Opinions from total strangers take me out of my ways
Part of the reason that we have become the most emotional but emotionless generation there is, is because we hate dealing with emotions. It looks weak. Not to mention that our elders often ridicule us for our feelings and call us ungrateful because “back in my day…” But times have changed. One could blame some of this because of social media and the pretense of stability and success we have to put on for our followers. For hours each day we scroll up and down Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, looking at what other people are doing, how they’re doing it, and who they’re doing it with. This generation judges their success off of how many likes or shares their post gets and how much better they are doing than the next person. The opinions or “likes” of others dictate our moods and self esteem.
I always hear people complain about the place that they live
That all the people here are fake and they got nothin’ to give
‘Cause they been starin’ at somebody else’s version of shit
That makes another city seem more excitin’ than it is
If you get on social media right now I can guarantee you that you will see a post about how there is “nothing to do here can’t wait until I move to (insert city)” or “everyone is fake, can’t trust anyone”; but why is this? Instead of being on our phones complaining, we should living in the moment and making our own fun like in the old days. This generation is so focused on finding the newest and hottest city or party that we miss what is right in front of us.
I know another girl that’s cryin’ out for help
But her latest caption is “Leave me alone”
I know a girl happily married ’til she puts down her phone
I know a girl that saves pictures from places she’s flown
To post later and make it look like she still on the go
Look at the way we live
Our version of emotionless is being completely in shambles but acting like nothing is wrong. For example, we have seen many marriages and relationships crumble right before us without warning, because social media made them seem perfect and stable. We are living in the generation of the “fake happy,” and running away from our problems and posting to Instagram and Twitter so people think we have everything together. Our self esteem has been damaged by this whether we want to admit it or not. It’s almost impossible to not compare your journey to someone else but the reality of it is, everyone has their shit. One person may look like they have their dream job and living in their dream city but everything else is in turmoil. That’s what makes “Emotionless” the song of our generation.
Drake gets it.
