Aaron Cole – My Year

American hip hop artist Aaron Cole became active in 2003 at age four.  His father wrote “Jesus is the Rock” for him, which was released under this title in 2003.  Since then, Cole engaged in several independent projects, releasing music before his first album, 4th Period, came out in 2012.

Cole released two albums and seven EP’s, including:

• 4th Period (2012)
• Fifteen Is the New XV (EP, 2014)
• If I Can Be Honest (EP, 2016)
• Virginia Boy (EP, 2018)
• The Other Side (EP, 2018)
• Not By Chance (2019)
• AOTY (EP, 2020)
• Only U Forever (EP, 2020)
• 4 (EP, 2020)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Aaron-cole-my-year-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Pride.

This song starts great, with Cole’s younger followers admiring his success; However, Cole’s lyrics take a turn for the worse.  He brags about how much God blessed him, artistic ability, fame, and that every year is “his year”.  He believes it’s God’s plan for him to be successful, not realizing that God will withhold blessings to the arrogant.  While I give Cole credit for working hard, pays lip service to God’s majesty, and that works only matter when done for God, he gives himself exalting nicknames like “Mr. Clutch”, thinks he’s better than everyone else, and that we should pay him proper respect.

Sorry Cole, but it’s hard to give respect to someone who acts unbecomingly.

This song’s structure is different.  There are two parts, each with their own distinctive hip hop flavor.  Part 1’s Chorus repeats after each Verse.  Part 1 contains a single Verse.  Both parts contain an intro.  No other refrains are significant.

Score: 2/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

As mentioned in section 1, almost the entire song is Cole acting prideful, which is unbiblical; However, there are small pockets of truth baked into this song.

[Part 1]

[Intro]

Lines 1-5: A child complimenting Cole on his music, choosing not to withhold doing good (Proverbs 3:27).

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Cole’s past girlfriends lament, wanting to be an item with Cole again.

Lines 3 and 4: Cole attained material blessing and fame, much like Michael Jordan did.  At least, he thinks he has.

Line 5: What began as an innocent compliment in Intro morphed into pride.  Cole believes that God hand-picked him to win, not realizing that God will humble proud people (Proverbs 16:5, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 18:12, Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, Luke 18:14, and James 4:6).

Lines 6 and 7: Cole claims that his #1 status is part of God’s plan, thinking he is better than everyone else.  This adds to Cole’s ego.

Lines 8-12: While Cole acknowledges with his lips that Jesus is sovereign (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11), he should have read Romans 12:3, which teaches that Cole ought not to think so highly of himself.

[Chorus]

Lines 1-3: See Verse 1, lines 6 and 7.

Lines 4-7: While it’s great that Cole works to earn his keep and yes, he should enjoy the fruits of his labor (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20); However, “this is my year” is prideful.

Lines 8-10: Essentially repeats lines 3-5.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-5: More egotistical statements.

Lines 6-8: Cole believes he hasn’t earned the respect of his peers and will dominate the industry in which he participates.

Lines 9-11: All I see is ego and pride under the guise of God’s blessing.

Line 12: As stated in my commentary to Chorus, lines 4-7, hard work is a great thing.  After all, those who are unwilling to work should not be allowed to eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

Line 13: Yet, the Bible teaches that I should fear God, not man (Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4-5).

Lines 14 and 15: Cole is right: I can’t rap at his level and yes, his recipe of hard work is great (see line 12); However, Cole still remains prideful.

Lines 16: References Spike Lee’s movie Do the right thing, but it seems the “right thing” for Cole is for us to not outshine him.

Lines 17 and 18: I can’t speak to what God said or didn’t say to Cole; However, I find it difficult to believe considering Cole’s swath of self-regarded statements thus far.

[Part 2]

[Intro]

Lines 1 and 2: Exclaims that neither adds to nor subtracts from my evaluation.

[Verse]

Lines 1-3: I can’t speak for Cole’s other songs and how he takes what many perceive hip hop/rap music to be, the “devil’s music”, and turns it around for God’s glory.  However, in this song, there is much pride radiating from Cole.

Line 4: Cole instructs us to cease committing guilt by association.

Lines 5 and 6: It was our culture’s perception of hip hop/rap music that calls Cole to be different, much like his earthly dad.

Line 7: Cole doesn’t have time to listen to children’s music or secular rappers.

Line 8: More pride from Cole.

Line 9: Cole tells others that Jesus is the foundation (Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 22:47, Psalm 18:31, Psalm 28:1, Psalm 62:2, Psalm 94:22, Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Matthew 7:24-27, Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:19, and 1 Peter 2:6).

Lines 10-14: I can’t speak to Cole’s school life vs. desire to make music.  Perhaps he was cutting class to write music.  Maybe the things he was taught were immoral and would rather make money.  I’ll assume the latter, which is consistent with Romans 12:2.

Line 15: I’m not sure which sense Cole means when he calls those who emulate him “cute”, but I can’t help but think it’s an insult.  If so, that’s not a great way to show love for one another (John 15:12).

Line 16: This is a “my way or the highway” attitude, as opposed to God’s way or the highway to hell (Matthew 7:13-14).

Line 17-19: Ironically, Cole is worried about his followers whose fame get to their head when, based on these lyrics, Cole believes he’s an influencer and acts pridefully (Matthew 7:1-5).

Lines 20 and 21: Cole is correct: the only works that matter are those done for God.  Everything else will be burnt up (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

Line 22: If you say so.

Score: 2/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will see an arrogant, egotistical, prideful man who claims he’s Christian yet thinks highly of himself, his accomplishments, and his talent.  What little Biblical narrative exists in this song will likely be discarded.

Score: 0/10

4. What does this song glorify?

Cole’s exuberant self-image does not bring glory to God; However, I’ll add a few points for the few things Cole gets right.

Score: 2/10

Closing Comments

Aaron Cole’s My Year is terrible.  Though Cole acknowledges Christ as Lord, believes in hard work, and knows that works that glorify God matter, Cole’s pride throughout these lyrics is expansive, causing deep, red marks on my head from the number of times I’ve banged it against my desk.  Unbelievers will see Cole’s hypocrisy, making it harder for them to consider Christianity as true.

Avoid this one like the plague!

Final Score: 1.5/10

Artist Info

Track: My Year (listen to the song)

Artist: Aaron Cole

Album: AOTY

Genre: Hip Hop/Rap

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 4:00

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