An Exploration of J. Cole’s “Ville Mentality”
J. Cole’s lyrics intertwine masterfully with the beat on “Ville Mentality” to tell a story about one’s legacy and mentality in life. It’s a heartfelt piece talking about his history, his past mentality that he needed to leave Fayetteville, his hometown, to escape the “Fayetteville mentality.”
The Fayetteville mentality, or ville mentality for short, is described as a mentality where you solely live in the present, without caring about what the future holds. J. Cole and I share the same sentiment on the ville mentality, where we both envy people who have the ville mentality but realize that that mentality doesn’t fit our current dreams and lifestyle. However, unlike the younger version of J. Cole, I believe that there’s something to be learned from the ville mentality.
In my elementary days up until senior year, I had the ville mentality simply because I didn’t need to plan out my future just yet. It was only until senior year, when I had to apply to college and consider what I wanted in my future, that I started to develop a mentality that diverged from the ville mentality. This different mentality is even more evident now that I’m in college because college gives you more freedom than high school, but with more freedom comes more responsibility. With more responsibility comes the different mentality because you take charge of your future with more responsibility, which requires thinking ahead.
I don’t think any mentality is more right than the other, but rather a balance between the two. If you only think ahead, then you aren’t living your life to the fullest in the present; but if you only focus on the present, you aren’t planning ahead and thinking of how you want your life to be. Because I recently shifted from the ville mentality to the different mentality, I overfocused on developing the different mentality that I forgot how to live in the present.
Another idea that J. Cole explores on “Ville Mentality” is the link between a mentality and a place. J. Cole realizes that “[he] didn’t necessarily have to leave Fayetteville to do what [he] did. You can be great in this place and make this place great.” A change of pace, moving from Fayetteville to New York like J. Cole did, can act as a catalyst to change your mindset, but I think it’s more about the people you associate with. J. Cole’s moving to New York for college would have meant that he knew less people than he did in Fayetteville, which would have given J. Cole more alone time and time to focus on himself, what he wants to do and his values.
It might not have even been the change of location: the transition to college in itself exposes you to new people who may or may not share the same mentality as you, and is an opportunity to self-reflect on your mentality and what type of person you want to be. However, it would be important to remember the lesson learned earlier in “Ville Mentality” and maintain a balance in mentality, or not overadapt to a different mentality and abandon completely your previous mentality. This has some significance for us, as we are also experiencing the transition to college this semester. Take some time to self-reflect on your mentality, and stay open-minded to different mentalities because you could learn a little from them.
Work Cited:
Cole, J. “Ville Mentality.” Genius, 2016, https://genius.com/J-cole-ville-mentality-lyrics.
