In the song “Love Yourz” by Jermaine Lamarr Cole (Jcole), he raps about how as a child his older brother (Zach Cole) and mother (Kay Cole), were abandoned by his biological father, who was an African American soldier after he was born in West Germany(On The Road to Riches). After being abandoned by her spouse Kay Cole took her and her boys back to the U.S. and settled down in Fayetteville, North Carolina (On The Road to Riches). The family of three lived in a trailer park and Mrs. Cole struggled to make ends meet(On The Road to Riches). There are examples of pathos in this song that can also be examples of ethos and maybe even logos because he is telling his audience to cherish the things that they are blessed to have in their life (On The Road to Riches).
One example of ethos and also pathos in the lyrics of “Love Yourz” by J Cole would be: “…Hear my words or listen to my signal of distress, I grew up in a city and though sometimes we had less, Compared to some of my n**gas, Down the block, man, we were blessed…” In these five lines, J Cole uses ethos to communicate a bond of trust he has with his audience/fans. J Cole uses these lines to say that he grew up in the same type of neighborhood as his fans. The pathos meaning of the lyrics would be that J Cole is expressing the pain of his past to his audience, but he does this to relate his childhood living with his fans. This is supposed to make a direct relation to the audience members who especially grew up in a poor neighborhood and who strive to achieve their goals and make their dreams come true just like J Cole did. An example of logos in the lyrics of “Love Yourz” by J Cole would be: “…For what’s money without happiness? Or hard times without the people you love?…” J Cole raps “What’s more the y without happiness?”. He is questioning the logic of the argument which is happiness. Because the main message of the song is that money doesn’t buy you happiness.
An example of pathos in the lyrics of “Love Yourz” by J Cole would be: “…So tell me mama please why you be drinking all the time? Does all the pain he brought you still linger in your mind? ‘Cause pain still lingers on mine?…” With these third lines, J Cole is making it aware that his mother drinks so much because her spouse isn’t there to help support the family (Staff). And women tend to feel down on themselves and feel less confident and their self-esteem levels drop due to their past relationships (Staff). And the reasons for that can range from abuse (physical and/or mental) to abandonment, which can just tear a woman’s mind apart, that lead to a life of drinking, drugs, no drive to support a family or even self, and in some extreme cases even suicide (Staff). If you look at the music video of this song J Cole’s body language alone expresses his pain yet the happiness the song brings to him. Not so much the song, but what the song represents and stands for and means to him. Jermaine Lamar Cole is a rapper that makes songs that are about real-life experiences that he went through growing up and also real-life events or things that happen in the neighborhood he grew up in.
