In a sense, the section of your paper meant to analyze the way that the structure informs the ideas that the song expresses doesn’t do that–instead, you basically summarize the song’s lyrical content. Your analysis here, though, is very brief–too brief. I like in particular your attention to the way that the rhymes shift from end rhymes to internal rhymes. You’re very thorough, touching on structural and musical elements.

You do a pretty good job here, Alex, discussing the structure of the song. Cole could be possibly implying that goals come before girls by the number of fingers he says to put up in the intro and outro, classifying the dream by “a finger” and the girl by “two fingers”. He prioritizes his goals, or his “promise land”, and indirectly implies that she was the right girl at the wrong time. The bridge softens, telling the girl “Darling don’t you wait for me”. He says that he already has a goal to set out to achieve, and that if he can’t have her now, he can’t stop to be with her for the sake of his goals and career. He introduces the topics at hand then proceeds to speak of how a girl who he fell in love with already had a man. To me, this song seemed more like a story. This song speaks of a girl who “fuck with small town niggas”, while Cole has “bigger dreams”. There is a constant “Ah” and “Yeah” being sung in the background by a feminine voice, that oscillates, and goes higher and lower. The outro is the same as the intro, finishing the way he started. During the bridge, Cole uses an AABB structure repeated twice. It then repeats again into the pre-hook and hook. Cole decides to rhyme within his “bars”, instead of using a formal structure, rhyming the end of the lines. The hook is upbeat and catchy for a concert or party setting, rhyming in a non-structured fashion. She fuck with small town niggas, I got bigger dreams.

He finishes off the verse with a ABCBDEBF structure, focusing primarily on the beat, but still incorporating the B rhyme every so often with “true”, “knew”, and “you”. Cole then proceeds into the first verse with an AAAABCBC structure. This suggests to the audience that the topics at hand that the composer wanted to assert were a goal and a girl when referring to “want it” and “want her”. He leads into the intro with enthusiasm, repeatedly exclaiming,Īye, put a finger in the sky if you want it, niggaĪye, put two fingers in the sky if you want her. Intro/Verse 1/Pre-Hook/Hook/Verse 2/Pre-Hook/Hook/Bridge/Outro. Cole’s “Deja Vu”, featured in his latest album, 4 Your Eyez Only, is structured accordingly: Because Rap and Hip Hop is more lyrically intense, the audience expect “bars” ( ). Cole’s music genres can be generally categorized as Rap or Hip-Hop.

J cole de ja vu