JustHill | ‘I Don’t Understand’, A New Beginning
‘I Don’t Understand.’ We promote artists, share their music, and they blow up. With that fame comes a platform; all-of-a-sudden these artists have a captive audience numbering in the millions. This is a massive opportunity to make an impact, to broadcast a meaningful message and change the world for the better, yet countless artists squander this opportunity either through ignorance or naïveté. But that isn’t the craziest part. The most mind-blowing aspect of this somber reality is that we continue to promote them even after they’ve failed us, while artists who actually have something to say are discarded and left on the sidelines.
JustHill falls into that second category of artists, and today, for the benefit of the music industry as a whole, I am going to be his champion. I can’t speak for JustHill, but as an artist entering his late 20s who has picked up, and put down the pen multiple times, I believe he feels the same way. JustHill has all of the qualities I look for in an artist. He is both lyrically conscious and authentic. His delivery is somehow both calculated and urgent. He spits with venom and his flow is nasty, rocket-propelled. All of these outstanding attributes and JustHill has still been more or less shelved. The way we assign value to artists is so twisted that I don’t even know if JustHill knows how talented he truly is.
JustHill puts voice to this frustration in his song “I Don’t Understand” from his album “If You Haven’t Heard,” which you probably haven’t heard.
“Shit to obtain, am I going insane, will I get to the fame, will I be the main topic; or do I gotta dye my hair, do I just pick what I wear? Do I act weird just to get a couple shares ‘cuz these people don’t care about a thing that I say, same shit different day. I work on my music and not on my image.“
We live in a world where ingenuity and sincerity are overlooked in favor of mind-numbing emptiness. In his song “Calm Down,” JustHill’s wordplay and double-entendres are nothing short of epic. His complex, perpetually shifting rhyme scheme is a thing of beauty. JustHill’s second verse deserves a Grammy itself. The way he weaves intricate, multi-syllabic rhymes into a delivery as smooth as a baby’s butt is chilling. But no, you would much rather hear about Cardi B’s “red bottoms” and “bloody shoes” and how girls used to call Drake on his cellphone.
I think I’ve figured it out though. We’ve reached a point that we’ve become fully absorbed in an avoidance culture. If we ignore the pain it isn’t real. If we bury our problems under layers of strippers, drugs, and social media clout then we won’t have to deal with them. Artists like JustHill tell you the cold hard truth, and just ask Paul Pierce: you can’t handle the truth. What we’re really doing is building up pressure, and when pressure reaches a critical point, it explodes.
Fittingly, in his Pressure series, years before Rythym and Flow, Flawless Real Talk hit it on the nose:
“Turn your back on your problems you still gotta face the truth.”
2020 is the year of the rebuild. We overcame a global pandemic, and began to deal with underlying racism and police brutality that we have overlooked and covered up for years. That is what life is about. Growth is not a passive process that just happens one day and now lo-and-behold you’re a new person. Growth is dealing with pain, and overcoming obstacles, not avoiding them. Maturation is a product of adversity, and you can come out bitter or you can come out better.
JustHill’s heartfelt soliloquy at the end of his song “Understand Me” really hit me hard:
“Understand me, I’m here to make change. I ain’t here to ride waves or jump in lanes I wasn’t built for, or obtain fame that people kill for; I’m just here for you to feel more.”
Rap Fiesta community, I’m talking to you. Lets start the rap music rebuild. Lets stop ignoring extremely talented artists because of our own faults and fears. Take one look at JustHill’s Instagram page and tell me he doesn’t have a story to tell; a message to spread. Artists like JustHill have potential to do amazing things, not only for themselves, but for all of us. All you have to do is listen.
