I love listening to music. From old-school soul to new-age R&B, I always have something on in the background. When listening to music and a particular lyric or verse from a song jumps out at me I tend to jot it down in my notes app. Although I am very unlikely to do anything or refer back to these lyrics, I think it’s important to write down words that have an emotional impact on you.

Usually, I don’t necessarily listen to music for the lyrics, but more for how it sounds and because of its composition, for how well all the components work together and how it makes you feel. But sometimes you can’t ignore the lyrics, and the message is too good to not think about the words.

One example from my notes is sung by Miss Lauryn Hill – a trailblazer in the genres of hip hop and neo-soul, and my personal favorite. Her album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is if not my favorite, one of my favorite albums of all time. I listen to it over and over again, but still on occasion a new lyric or verse jumps out at me. I noted the line ‘How you gonna win, when you ain’t right within?’ which is from one of Lauryn Hill’s most popular songs, Doo Wop (That Thing). This song is about the relationship between men and women and how women are sometimes negatively portrayed in hip hop. This line especially stands out since it’s repeated several times in the chorus of the song. To me, it means that you are not going to be able to get what you want when you have not come to a sort of internal peace. You can’t expect to win when you are not authentic and true to yourself.

I think it’s important for me to write down things like lyrics that stand out or impact me in some sort of way so I am not just mindlessly consuming content. Taking a second to type a verse or line of a song allows me to appreciate it more and possibly even try to implement its message into my life.