Bright

About a year and a half ago, I was introduced to an artist named Kehlani. She is an extremely talented singer who originally was in a band called Poplyfe. When the group began to fall through, she split off and has been coming out with her own music since 2014. Her first big album came out in 2015, called "You Should be Here." Now I listen to apple music, and when in search for some new songs, I go to the apple radio, usually on the pop station, and just skip the songs I didn't want to listen to. When I first started doing this, This one song called "Alive" would maybe pop up on the radio, and I would always skip it, because I had listened to the first verse and didn't like how it sounded. Months later, I met a friend who was obsessed with this artist names Khelani. She introduced me to some of her favorites, which I kinda liked.

One day, I decided to look her up myself, after recognizing her voice and name in the Suicide Squad sound track with the song "Gansta." I discovered how many amazing songs that she had, and realized that that one song I absolutely hated a few months ago was hers, so I decided to listen to the whole song, and realized that it was actually a pretty cool song. I began to listen to all the song's on that album, "You Should be Here," and one song stuck with me more than the others. The second to last song on her album is a song called "Bright," and I think this song is one of the most poetic works of art she has ever made.

In the song, she tells the story of a little girl, young woman, little boy, and young man. In individual ways, they are are struggling to love themselves. The little girl doesn't like her hair, and how it curls, and when comparing herselve to other's that she finds pretty, she doesn't look like them. The young women is always reading magazines and thinking that she looks very different than her ideal woman. Kehlani says the girl is thinking "oh I've got all these curves, all this nerve, why can't I keep a man?" And Kehlani reassures her with "But baby girl, if you love yourself, you can." Then in the second verse, she talks about the little boy, who looks down at his shoes, knowing that they aren't very clean, and feeling that if he had cleaner shoes or more money, then he would be able to get a date. The young man is always working out, trying to look more muscular, or look a certain way saying,"You see those guys, they get all the girls, I just want to be like them." And then Kehlani again soothes by saying, "But baby boy, your spreading yourself thin."

Then when she hits the chorus, all she sings about is self love. "Can't nobody love somebody that do not love themselves. You are what you choose to be, it's not up to no one else. So be great, be kind, don't let them dim your light. Cause a man like the sun should always stay bright."

The message that she sends with song really hits me personally, along with many others who sometimes find it hard to love who they are, and these are the kinds of genius songs that I call poetry.