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What Dreamville Taught Us About Sacrifice
"I Make Sacrifices....Bloody Sacrifices" - EARTHGANG
It’s been over a week since Dreamville did the world of hip hop a favor and dropped the record label’s third collaboration album, Revenge of the Dreamers 3. This album featured a number of both mainstream and rising artists from all parts of the country, all strategically meshed together to engineer a collaborative masterpiece. The album has received much attention, and has been raved by critics and many lovers of hip hop. Rising artists like Guapdad 4000, Buddy, Saba, and Smino got their chance to push their careers forward, while veterans like J. Cole and T.I. delivered vintage performances behind the mic. What we thought was most satisfying was to hear tracks on the album like Self love and Sacrifices. These songs branched away from the prominent upbeat-hip hop theme of the album and decided to touch on more sentimental topics.
This is why we love hip hop. Because underneath the, what some might call, controversial lyrics, record companies like Dreamville are no stranger to incorporating positive messages into their art. Contrary to many critics’ opinions, I thought Sacrifices was the best song on the album – why? – not because it had the best chorus or the best artists on it, but the message is centered around – sacrifices, which is what I wanted to touch on in this editorial.
I was a young teenager when my uncle told me the two things that every man needed to understand in order to be great. He told me that I needed to grasp the concept of service and sacrifice. Now more than ever I’ve been met with the task of understanding what sacrifice looks like – and I doubt I am the only one.
In the song, Sacrifices, EARTHGANG opened with an amazing verse, then followed up with the chorus – “I make sacrifices – bloody sacrifices”. That hook quickly turned me into a frenzy of self-reflection. I believe our generation hasn’t fully grasped the concept of sacrifice. We get sad whenever things don’t go our way – even if there was no other way for things to go at the expense of how we wanted to live our lives. We rarely like to invest in anything, because investing requires us losing something of ours in the present – nevertheless we expect to get it all back – but still.
We hate to be in a deficit – and who can blame us. I hate it myself. I hate when I can’t go out because I have homework or company work to get done. I hate when I’m financially unstable because I have to pay to live where I’m at. I hate having to put hours into studying for midterms and finals. The list can go on and on – I hate so many things about sacrifice…but one thing that gets me to be at ease after I’ve missed out on all the activities and lay on my bed, broke, lonely and bored, is the fact that one day the fruits of my labor will manifest, and nothing I do is done in vain.
Vision. This is the pill to swallow when sacrifices give you an upset stomach. There’s a reason why the remainder of the song featured different artists reflecting on their life and loved ones. There was a reason why J. Cole ended the song with an ode to his wife…
“Huggin’ the block, huggin’ the block, okay
She gave me the gift of my son, and plus we got one on the way
She gave me a family to love, for that, I can never repay
I’m crying while writing these words, the tears, they feel good on my face, hey”
Remember why you make the sacrifices you make. Maybe you have a goal you want to achieve, or people in your life you want to provide for. Your sacrifice is not in vain.
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