Rhetoric in J Cole’s Kevin’s Heart

Just like any other form of art, music serves to educate and talk about real-life situations
while at the same time entertaining the masses. As culture evolves, the artists also change the
way they present their craft to fit the society’s expectations. Besides, musicians play a significant
role in society as they can easily pass messages to their vast followings. Most of them do this by
using artistic styles like metaphor and rhetoric. One such musician is J Cole whose songs give
candid messages indirectly. One of his songs that uses rhetoric in the lyrics and the video is
Kevin’s Heart, a song that debuted in the album KOD and whose music video was released in
2018.
J Cole is one of the contemporary musicians who is known for having entertaining music
with significant life lessons engraved in the lyrics through use of metaphor and rhetoric. One of
his most famous songs is Kevin’s Heart that serves to give different messages depending on the
listener. Overall, the song explains the perquisites of any human being struggling with various
issues and how distraction prevents people from fixing their lives. The song is from his album
KOD with the theme ‘choose wisely’, and thus the reason why the song makes sense as it also
explains how in people’s attempt to chose carefully, distraction makes them not to. This essay
will discuss the various aspects of rhetoric in both the lyrics of the song and its video.
One can look at the song from two different perspectives, that one, the singer is telling
the plight of famous comedian Kevin Hart after his cheating scandal went viral in 2017. Or two,
J Cole is telling his story about his struggles with drugs. The lyrics are candid, and one can tell
that through them, J Cole is telling the story of how different people struggle with different
things, although the obvious ones are drugs and unfaithfulness.

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The other thing about the song that is rhetoric is the music video. The video focuses on
Kevin Hart, who is pictured doing his regular errands like grocery shopping, but the public is
judgmental and looks at him with contempt because of the cheating saga. There are other scenes
that are not so direct, and they all represent the struggles people face in their daily lives as they
try to get their lives in order. One can, therefore, look at the video from the point that life is
never perfect for everyone and that Kevin’s heart is a representation of so many people’s
troubled hearts as they try to fix their lives. J Cole’s work is thus undoubtedly a proper use of
rhetoric in passing a message through music.
Video
The song is set after his cheating claims went viral. He is captured going to shop
groceries and how various people treat him because of the cheating allegations. For instance in
one scene, when he is in a store, two people are captured looking at him with judgmental and
contemptuous eyes. This is even though Kevin regrets his deeds and is trying to fix his mistakes.
The other type of scene that is recurrent is the one where various young women try flirting with
him through acts like passing him suggestive notes. This goes to show that in spite his attempts
to correct his life and put it in order, everyone still views him as the man who cheated on his
wife and on who is likely to continue cheating.
Another scene in the video that shows how being a public figure prevents one from
correcting one’s mistakes is the scene where, in the store, as Kevin Hart tries to fix a broken baby
carrier, two fans stop by for suggestive pictures and do nothing to help him fix the carrier. His
goes to show that despite the many people who seem interested in one’s struggle, none is willing
to give active help and incase their presence only serves as distraction. On the other side, a less

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popular man manages to fix his broken baby carrier because there is no distraction, as in Kevin’s
case.
From the video, it is thus clear that Kevin Hart shows the struggles a person undergoes
when trying to fix their mistakes while in the public space. The videos are therefore rhetoric
since the message is not outright hence one has to think about the role the various scenes serve
throughout the video. In addition, since Kevin is famous and his cheating scandal was much
publicized, J Cole might have decided to name the song through him. Moreover, he used the
comedian in the video to not only to represent the unfaithfulness of celebrities in marriage and
their efforts to fix their families, but also the struggles of so many other people who in spite
putting in personal efforts to fix their lives, there is too much distraction that renders them
unsuccessful.
The Lyrics
The lyrics for the song take different stands. First, one can take up a similar message like
the one in the video; that it is the difficulties of fixing a broken marriage after cheating nad the
constant temptations to cheat. This is through lines like ‘She my number one, I don’t need
anything on the side said that I was done for good and don’t want any more lies But my phone be
blowing up, temptations on my line.’ On the other hand, one can view the lyrics as J Cole’s
struggles to quit drugs through lines like ‘if I take this cookie now one day I’ll do time”, which
could send him to jail.’ Through these two perspectives one might understand that Jcole attempts
to explain his struggles with drugs and at the same time, his unsuccessful efforts to remain
faithful with the woman he loves.
Although throughout the lyrics Kevin’s heart is not mentioned, it is evident that J Cole’s
artistic nature made him ride on Kevin Hart’s cheating scandal. One can thus conclude that the

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song is mainly about the struggles of drugs and unfaithfulness faced by celebrities. At the same
tie, one can view the song as an urge to everyone else trying to mend mistakes that they are not
alone and that even the celebrities everyone looks up faces struggles and in any case their efforts
are more profound due to their popularity status.
In conclusion, J Cole has successfully managed to bring out about struggling to fix
inevitable life mistakes in a manner that is indirect and artistic. Furthermore, through both the
music video and the profound lyrics, one can tell that J Cole made a song that many people can
relate with since almost everyone is trying to fix an aspect of their life. Overall, rhetoric in the
lyrics and various metaphorical scenes depict how musicians are currently using music to send
relevant messages to their fans.
The video can be found here- https://youtu.be/ufynqs_COF4