Many know J. Cole for his songs that you would turn down if you were in the car with your mom like "Wet Dreamz" and "G.O.M.D." Your mom most likely does not know that J. Cole also has a song that promotes a very non-sexual, deeply meaningful message about gratitude and self-love.
When "Love Yourz" came out in 2014, J. Cole briefly explained what he meant by it. He said, “When I was young, I thought that success was all I needed… having people say, ‘Yo, you are the best in the game!’ I thought those would be the things that would bring happiness..."It is easy to view happiness in the way Cole describes above as finding success is all you need. But he found that this view of happiness is no good.
He continued, “... When those things came, the happiness wasn’t there. There was such an attempt to achieve these things and to keep going that you lose sight of the people and the blessings you have around you."
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The following lyrics of his song make this message very clear.
"No such thing as a life that's better than yours"
This line is repeated over and over in the song. It reiterates J. Cole's idea of how important it is to be aware of how blessed you are, no matter what you believe you are lacking. What you have is as good as it gets.
"It's beauty in the struggle..."
Here, J. Cole mentions that even in what seems like the worst moments, there is something beautiful. You can always find the good to focus on. In fact, the struggle itself has its own kind of beauty.
"For what's money without happiness?"
J. Cole comes back to his idea that even though you may think success and wealth will make you happy, this is not the case. It is not through rewards that we find happiness. Without feeling happy and feeling good about your life, the money has no impact. Since happiness is most important, it is crucial that we find it before we worry about how many 0s are in our bank accounts.
"Always gon' be some clothes that's fresher than the ones you rock... Always gon' be a b*tch that's badder out there on the tours... But you ain't never gon' be happy till you love yours"
Toward the end of the song, J. Cole lists a few lines that begin with "always gon' be" as he references that there will always be things in others that you can compare yourself to. Regardless, he preaches that you have to "love yours" (hence the title of the song). You can't control what others have in their lives, but you can control how you view yours.
So, love it.