On a short minute-long track, Baltimore rapper John Wells dances alongside motivations and grievances.
Over warm guitar licks and airy drum rhythms, John Wells on “the weather is warmer” divides a miniature track into two halves that play on each other’s nuances. He loosely delivers messages about his determination to arrive wherever he imagines himself at, and how the repercussions of his focus scare him.
Within the first verse of the track, we’re able to see the balance of negatives and positives in Wells’ life. He details how he’d rather be lonesome and confrontational than reliant and compliant, seemingly all to get what he dreams of having.
At the halfway point of the song, his fear bubbles to the surface after remarking how he needs something to make the days shorter.
His painful awareness of his fast-paced life comes through in his lines, “’Cause I move too fast / and I’m scared to crash / and life move like a coupe in a car chase.”
His worry, nevertheless, is bookended by his own motivational reprise to close the track.
He resolutely repeats, “I can’t go nowhere but where I’m tryna go / it is not 12:30 in different time zones' I’ve never seen the sun come up in California but I know for sure the day ain’t no shorter / I can’t go nowhere but where I’m tryna go / it ain’t 12:30 when in different time zones / I never seen the sun come up in California, but I know for a fact the weather is warmer.”
In this closing mantra, Wells embodies the essence of the track by framing his context both optimistically and pessimistically.
In the former line, he’s aware he’s not alone in his struggle and knows that no matter what comes, it can’t be worse than what he’s been working with.
In the latter, he seems slightly downtrodden as he’s aware it gets better the closer you are to your destination, but he’s also aware sometimes it’s hard to not sulk in your current negatives.
Though the track is fairly lacking in length, it isn’t necessarily lacking in substance. Within a mere minute, Wells is able to cleanly pack in verses that display the subtlety of life as we move through it.
“the weather is warmer” seems like a reminder that not everything is as cut and dry as it may seem. Though it’s a good thing to stay driven and be self-reliant, sometimes you need to give yourself some space and slow things down for a while.
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