J.Cole American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer born Jermaine Lamarr Cole in a military base in Germany and raised in North Carolina.
The song middle child is largely based on the idea of being the “middle child” of rap mainly because he became popular during the transition of rap music from the old school vibe to a more modern new school rap. Cole realizes he is a connection between the two but is alright with being that.
There are three main themes of the video that Cole is trying to convey. One big theme that goes through the video is the “middle child” feeling of how he is the middle of the video the whole time in framing and composition but no one in the video is playing him any attention. A second theme is with his feelings of fame and things dealing with the ordeal of wealth. Mainly due to how the video starts with the silhouette of people behind him then as the video continues and the beat drops it is shown to be more important people but like the first theme no one is paying him attention. Then it drops again and everyone is dead basically showing how little importance it is to have those things because you all die and end up in the ground anyway. As well as the sense of the hunting aspect in the first part and the buying aspect in the second part showing the two different parts of the society we live in. The last being how African American women’s beauty is liked just not when it is on the woman who it belongs to. So the strong African American woman is shown in the hunting environment and the buyer environment shows an Anglo woman who saw baby hairs on an African American woman and went to the “store” to buy the “look”.