The Bard and the Born Sinner: Thematic Similarities

Beyond their shared stylistic flair, J. Cole and Shakespeare are also connected in the themes that they explore. Human nature has changed little in the past four centuries, and we still grapple with desire, envy, ambition, and spiritual fulfillment — eternal struggles that both artists hold mirrors to in their written work. J. Cole’s music often carries deep messages about self-worth, love, and mortality, just like Shakespeare’s plays and poetry.

In J. Cole’s uplifting track “Love Yourz,” he delivers a heartfelt lesson that there is “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours.” He is urging listeners to value their own lives and to find happiness in the present, rather than paying attention to other people’s lives or coveting material things. This theme of finding richness within oneself echoes a value upheld in Shakespearean writing. In “Sonnet 29,” Shakespeare suffers by comparing himself to others until he remembers the love that he has, at which point he declares, “I’d then refuse to change places with kings.” Both Shakespeare and J. Cole are championing the idea of gratitude and contentment over jealousy and empty striving, teaching that true riches lie in self-acceptance. Even though they are separated by over 400 years, the Bard and the rapper deliver a moral principle that is strikingly similar.

Shakespeare’s works frequently warn about misplaced ambition and the reckless pursuit of power, a theme that J. Cole often riffs about in the context of money and fame. “What’s money without happiness?” Cole muses in “Love Yourz.” This rhetorical question recalls Shakespeare’s line “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” In Henry IV, Part 2, King Henry talks about how simple commoners sleep soundly while the king lies awake, burdened with great responsibility. Cole’s question, essentially asking what good success is if you aren’t happy with yourself, conveys a similar insight. Here, both artists remind us that outward success can be hollow without inner peace. 

Themes such as mortality and legacy also weave through both artists’ oeuvres. In J. Cole’s contemplative songs, he often grapples with violence and loss in his community; these songs share DNA with Shakespeare’s often tragic meditations on death. In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet delivers the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy on life and death. That introspective speech finds a modern parallel in Cole’s reflections on the fragility of life in “Change,” addressing  friends lost too soon and grappling with the duality of pain and perseverance in the face of death as he mourns the loss of his friend James who was shot down. The line “that was my friend James that was slain he was 22” delivers a gut-punch of specificity, echoing Hamlet’s grief over friends and family lost to senseless violence. Cole’s raw honesty forces listeners to confront not only the certainty of death but also its injustices, especially as it strikes the young and voiceless. Cole doesn’t shy away from the dark questions, and, similar to Shakespeare’s characters, he asks us to pause and wonder what truly matters if tomorrow isn’t promised.