Started from the Bottom: But Maybe One Day I Won't Still Be Here

            We can learn a lot from actor turned rapper Aubrey "Drake" Graham. Not only does he produce instant hits, but he manages to sell himself (convincingly) as both a zealous and conceited douchebag and the guy you want to spill your heart out to. His most recent chart-topper, "Started From the Bottom", is unsophisticated in lyricism and cacophonous. But, Drake knows that. In fact, it's by design. As is common in rap music, the message can play a larger role in the success of a song than the sound itself. “Started From the Bottom” demonstrates that Drake, cares a great deal about what his music says, in addition to how it sounds. In an inherently hierarchical society, everybody feels as though they have "started from the bottom" at some point in their lives, whether as a result of economic, social, or racial circumstance. Starting from the bottom, is central to the tale of the American Dream, something, which has been carefully crafted and not-so-subliminally at the forefront of American culture since its foundation. Here, in America, the promise is not equality, but equal opportunity; the promise is that, we all, start at the bottom. And although this may not in fact be true, as rising economic insecurity and the widening gap between the ultra-rich and the middle-class show us, amazingly, the belief is still intact. The narrative of the American Dream, which is rooted in the Protestant ethos upon which the country was built, continues to shape public sentiment despite rampant unemployment and stagnant economic growth. Drake successfully summarizes over 300 years of American history, tradition, and sociocultural beliefs into just two lines: "Started from the Bottom/ Now I'm here". If you weren't convinced the first time he says it, he repeats it for you. Eight times. By the time the song has elapsed and you and your friends have been chanting the hook at your pregame for the last five minutes, you too, will believe that you will be "here". And "here", is deliberately ambiguous. For Drake, it might mean the transition from Toronto's posh neighborhood, Forest Hill (also coincidentally the neighborhood with the highest median income in Toronto), to the even richer streets of LA where the girls and booze and fans are ubiquitous. It won't bother you, though, that his bottom is levels above yours, because for you, "here" might mean that you're finally at a party with the cool kids after years of social climbing. Or that you're at your college graduation and you're the first person in your family to make it through school. That's both the genius and irony of "Started From the Bottom" and the American Dream. They're selling a product that most of us are in the market to buy: the possibility of moving up. As a student fresh out of her first year in university and a human resources intern at one of the world's most prestigious law firms, where a 4.0 GPA and Harvard Law degree is the gold standard for achievement, I'm well aware that I'm "starting at the bottom". But, I can't help but hope that maybe one day, I won't still be here.

A look down the Westside highway, in Battery Park City, with an adjacent Goldman Sachs (right). July 2013.