I must have listened to Drake’s “Do Not Disturb” over 25 times on a flight from Chicago to NYC last weekend. You know those songs that sometimes just hit a cord within? The songs that speak to a part of your heart you haven’t been able to vocalize. The songs that describe the experiences you’ve had that no one else understands. They motivate you. You play them over and over as if you are going to discover something new despite knowing every ad-lib and chord change.

I’m not sure why the airplane is usually where I discover the gems that stick with me, but I do. There’s something about the silence and the endless sky that make the airplane a special breeding ground for thought and self reflection. On this particular flight something super special happened. I started to jot down the lines in “Do Not Disturb” that struck a cord with me and they started to fall together to form a freeform poem that speaks of my self conscious.

Do Not Disturb

All the things I know, I’ve still been silent though.

Ducked a lot of spiteful moves,

I was an angry youth while I was writing Views,

saw a side of myself that I just never knew,

I would probably self destruct if I ever lose, but I never do.

More blessings because I’m generous,

I can never sleep till morning on my quiet nights,

Seasons go by like I’m binge watching.

Distractions will do you in in the truest sense.

Especially people who want to lecture me

and frame it like they just want the best for me

or they check for me.

Whatever it splits it up so theres’s more for them

and there’s less for me.

They don’t know they gotta be faster than me to get to me,

No one has done it successfully.

Always trying to let go of anything that will burden me,

thats the reason you can feel the tension and the urgency.

Take the shit to heart, it’s always executed perfectly.

I am a reflection of all of your insecurities.

My life is centered around competition and currency.

Maybe getting back to my normal life will humble me.

I’ll be back 2018 to give you the summary,

More life.

I was impressed. The quotes I selected told a story. A story that I related to and in fact baffled me. I didn’t know whether to applaud Drake’s storytelling abilities or rave about the coincidence but either way, it made me fall deeper in love with the song.

I decided to give my second favorite song on the album a go. Here we go again, short but sweet:

Jorga Interlude

They turn their back and they leave you, they’ll be back when they need you.

I practice good over evil, flipping the script like a read through.

You tell you {people} you got them on anything, question is do they believe you?

Especially when you never come through?

So much hate inside your heart, we don’t even know what we’ve done to you.

You out here telling everybody everything. You move like the 1–2.

Again. It worked. I kept going, song by song, I jotted my favorite lines and watched them fall into impactful free form poems. For the first time, I collected Drake quotes without fearing that quoting them would put me in the “Used Caption Club.” Instead I gained a new level of respect for the storyteller who is Drake.

I urge you, take your favorite song, extract your favorite lines, piece them together, and let me know if that song that once spoke to your heart, now SINGS to your heart.

MORE LIFE! 🙂