Hated

Artist: Jacobi Ryan

Release: February 12, 2019

I had the pleasure of first being introduced to Jacobi Ryan’s music after he sent in tracks to be played on the podcast, Awkward Menage. The song he sent was ‘Hated” which aired on our episode ‘Gucci Gang Bang.’ We chose this track because it’s the sixth track out of the fifty-two Jacobi is trying to drop this year. He’s trying to drop a new track and video every week this year, and it’s a bold endeavor indeed.

This track seemed to tie in pretty well with the theme of our show. As far as content goes, Jacobi certainly has it. It’s a song about what it’s like to be biracial in America. We often say, oh that persons just acting light skinned, but what does that even mean? Jacobi Ryan speaks on how he’s conflicted with his black and white sides. He’s never black enough, he’s never white enough; and he seems to have a hard time accepting the way his white half has treated the black half. Knowledge is definitely power as he proclaimed throughout his hook and second verse. We need to do better with teaching our kids which is what we all agreed was a big issue in our community during the episode in which the song aired.

I was rocking with Jacobi Ryan until we got to that third verse. It didn’t seem to tie in with the rest of the song. It switched gears from him talking about his life as a biracial man in America and how blacks can do better. To talking about the Politics of Religion and how our savior isn’t the white man he’s depicted to be. Now while I agree with all statements made, it just seemed like a leap of ideas not successfully tied together. He ended the song with a different tone than what he started. He talks about how Jesus was murdered for just being a humanitarian and Christians scream about healthcare but how we can’t afford it. Que Bob Marley quote.

There’s a great value of production with this track. I loved the beat, and I loved how Jacobi’s flow mirrored it nicely. You can hear in his voice and deliberate tone that he wants us to take what he’s saying seriously. He’s a very good rapper, but he fumbled just a bit when the beat dropped at the end of the third verse and he made an acapella statement. It was jumbled when he spoke the beginning of each bar, and left me scratching my head by the end. He had the chance to use that time to make a very powerful statement to tie all his thoughts together, and he didn’t.

Overall, it’s a good track. I think with just a little more thought on how to present and execute his ideas it would’ve been a great song. No matter how mismatched it all seemed to be, the message was still one we all should hear. As always, don’t just take my word for it.

Go ahead and check the link below to listen to the track yourself and watch the video. Also check out the Podcast he’s created for the 52 in 365 initiative he’s started. It has this track, his previous track, and he’ll be posting future tracks as well.