What can we learn from rappers Juice Wrld and Jelly Roll?

There is an intriguing yet gloomy feeling I get when I hear of mental illness (depression, anxiety, etc) coming from those most would consider “privileged” or “successful.” On the surface, it’s confusing but after deeper examination, it begins to make sense.

Simply stated — the more you have, the more you have to bear. As we accumulate more things, we accumulate more responsibility.

It is our impulse to observe wealth and happiness as something attained externally but only after attaining that external wealth do we realize that we were chasing a ghost. As a species, we’ve been chasing this ghost ever since we left our hunter-gatherer tribes, as exemplified in the plush lifestyles of a monarch, the material possessions of King Henry VIII, and the ancient teachings of the Buddha.

This is why Socrates said,

“He is richest who is content with least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.”

Nevermore did these points come to light until I read Booker T. Washington in his autobiography describe the difficulty of becoming a free person:

“The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it.”

Freedom in a civilized society doesn’t mean freedom from burdens. This is because freedom, and all life in general, is guaranteed to come with suffering and responsibility.

Recently, you may have noticed a rise in minimalism. This philosophy aligns with the contentment of Socrates.

But, this minimalist philosophy goes back much further. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived on minimalism. Yuval Harari, in his book Sapiens, describes how human lives became worse after they left their tribes. He calls it the luxury trap:

“The story of the luxury trap carries with it an important lesson. Humanity’s search for an easier life released immense forces of change that transformed the world in ways nobody envisioned or wanted. Nobody plotted the Agricultural Revolution or sought human dependence on cereal cultivation. A series of trivial decisions aimed mostly at filling a few stomachs and gaining a little security had the cumulative effect of forcing ancient foragers to spend their days carrying water buckets under a scorching sun.”

To illustrate this point to its utmost degree, Sebastian Junger in his book Tribe describes the phenomenon of English settlers leaving their civilized lives for tribal Indian life:

“Emigration always seemed to go from the civilized to the tribal, and it left Western thinkers flummoxed about how to explain such an apparent rejection of their society.

White captives who were liberated from the Indians were almost impossible to keep at home: “Tho’ ransomed by their friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a short time they become disgusted with our manner of life… and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods.”

Just like the fleeing English settlers, if we are not prepared for the suffering and responsibility of this life, we begin to seek relief from these burdens.

In today’s world, far too often the end result is mental illness and substance abuse because now we have nowhere to escape to.

This is where Juice Wrld and Jelly Roll come in. These two men, who both come from poor single-parent family homes, but had completely different upbringings and cultures, both arose to fame singing poignantly about their mental illness and substance abuse.

Their rise to fame didn’t bring happiness but it can bring philosophical lessons for all of us.

I’ll allow them to lyrically tell you their stories:

• From Juice Wrld’s song “Wishing Well”:

And all of my sorrows

I just wash them down

It’s the only peace I’ve ever found

All of this drinking and smoking is hopeless but feel like its all that I need

Something inside of me is broken, I hold onto anything that sets me free

Stress on my shoulders like a anvil

Perky got me itching like a ant-hill

Drugs killing me softly, Lauryn Hill

Sometimes I don’t know how to feel

Sometimes I don’t know how to feel

Let’s be for real

If it wasn’t for the pills, I wouldn’t be here

But if I keep taking these pills, I won’t be here, yeah

I just told y’all my secret, yeah

It’s tearing me to pieces

I really think I need them

I stopped taking the drugs and now the drugs take me

• From Jelly Roll’s song “Save Me”:

Somebody save me

Me from myself

I’ve spent so long

Living in hell

They say my lifestyle is bad for my health

It’s the only thing that seems to help

All of this drinking and smoking is hopeless but feel like its all that I need

Something inside of me is broken, I hold onto anything that sets me free

I’m so damaged beyond repair

Life has shattered my hopes and my dreams

Personally, I enjoy both of these songs and by the looks of almost 100 million total video views, a lot of other people do too. Beyond their obvious talent, maybe these songs resonate with a society suffering from mental illness and substance abuse?

Also, the fact that mental illness doesn’t evaporate among the “wealthy.” In fact, the data points paradoxically to the wealthy having a bigger burden than the “poor.”

This is exemplified by some facts:

“People in wealthy countries suffer depression at as much as 8X the rate they do in poor countries.”

“Mexicans born in the United States are wealthier than Mexicans born in Mexico but far more likely to suffer from depression.”

“By contrast, Amish society has an exceedingly low rate of depression because, it is theorized, many Amish remain utterly unassimilated into modern society — to the extent that they won’t even drive cars.”

If you look at the rates of mental illness, suicide, depression, schizophrenia, in the modern American environment, they’re sky high and climbing. The suicide rate keeps going up, which is odd for a society that’s this wealthy and well-off. It’s not that the suicide is increasing among the very poor. It’s actually increasing among the affluent. That, to me, says there’s something literally deadly about social isolation.

-Sebastian Junger, Tribe

Or, you could draw your attention to Silicon Valley’s mental illness epidemic.

How do they explain this wealthy vs. poor phenomenon?

“The mechanism seems simple: poor people are forced to share their time and resources more than wealthy people are, and as a result they live in closer communities. Inter-reliant poverty comes with its own stresses — and certainly isn’t the American ideal — but it’s much closer to our evolutionary heritage than affluence.” -Sebastian Junger, Tribe

Juice Wrld, who sadly passed away in late 2019, and Jelly Roll, both reminded me of the mental illness problem we face in America but also how important it is to prepare ourselves and our youth for the inevitable suffering that’s coming.

On average, we come into contact with about 20 people per day. And, it’s been shown that 1 in 5 people will suffer from a mental illness. That means you will run into 4 people who are suffering from a mental illness today.

This may sound trite, but try smiling, it could save someone’s life.

Or, if you need guidance in this preparation, you could try getting out of your own way, harnessing your inner immigrant, getting inspired by timeless philosophy, learn how others approach spirituality, or learn from people like Juice Wrld (R.I.P):

“Even if I’m talking about something that’s negative, I look at it as putting my mistakes out there for people to learn from it.”