Research: Detailed Textual Analysis (J. Cole - Lost Ones)

The song "Lost Ones" by J.Cole is a HipHop song about a J.Cole finding out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and it creates an argument whether she should keep it or not. The storytelling within the song is really strong and the arguments are similar to something I would like to recreate which is why I have chosen to go into a detailed analysis of the music video.

The first shot we see is of the woman, crying, whilst staring out the window, The title of the song is appears beside her.

The next shot is of the woman from the other side of the window, she is positioned to the right and the credits are placed over the shot to the left.

We get a glimpse of J.Cole in a longshot, showing him infront of a graffiti wall background.

We see a extreme close up of the womans eyes, whilst she cries.

This is a slightly high-angled close up shot of J.Cole's feet as he walks up to his girlfriend. 

He leans up against the window before starting to talk to her (Through his verse in the song)

We see a long shot of the two of them standing by the window, they are dark as the light is coming from behind them in the shot.

In this over the shoulder shot we see J.Cole begin to talk to her, through his verse, but she turns away as if she doesnt want to listen.

We see J.Cole on his own performing his lyrics to a camera, this helps establish him as the artist in the song. Differentiating him from the girl

While he is rapping/talking to her she is also shouting at him back, though her movements are in slowmotion, this shows that she is not performing the lyrics and that he is.

We see a sort of over the shoulder shot, seeing Cole try to explain his stance of her being pregnant.

An interesting use of split screen is shown, this shows us the expression on both of the couples faces from the others point of view.

A close up of J cole holding her hand and putting his other hand on his heart to show that he really means what hes saying and that he cares for her.

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We go back to the long shot of the couple and we see she lets go of his hand, her expression still not happy.

We see the shot of Cole performing his lyrics to the camera again. This keeps from the scene of the argument becoming too boring for the audience.

We go back to the split screen, but at the end of the shot the camera pans away from the couple as the girl turns away from cole.

We see a shot of Cole with his arms open as if to say "just hear me out" as she walks away.

A shot of J Cole just thinking, as she starts to walks over to the sink

We see the woman roll up her sleeves and start to prepare food..

A quick shot of J Cole performing his lyrics again, just to break up the main scene for a bit and keep the music video flowing.

When we get back to the scene, the woman has cut her hand on a knife as she was distracted by the argument earlier.

J Coles next verse starts, but as he is rapping from the womans point of view, the girl is the one who is lip syncing the lyrics, even though it is J. Coles verse that we hear.

We see the shot of J.Cole performing again, possibly to remind us as the audience that he is the one who is rapping the lyrics in the song, establishing him as the artist once again.

we see a side shot of her shouting at him, J.Cole has a stern expression on his face as he is actually listening to what she has to say.

This next two shots are a flashback. We only see J.Cole lying on the bed, presumably naked, and an extreme close up of them holding hands but it is implied they are having sex, as the visuals really start to illustrate the lyrics. The girl says that he said that he loved her when they had sex, but now shes pregnant he wants nothing to do with it.

"See I knew that this is how you act, so typical
Said you love me oh but now you flipping like reciprocals
It figures though, I shoulda known that you was just another nigga
No different from them other niggas
Who be claiming that they love you just to get up in them drawers
Knowing all the right things to say, I let you hit it raw, muthafucka!
Now I'm pregnant, you don't wanna get involved, muthafucka?"

We see a close up of the womans face and it is clear she is more angry than she is upset.

As she carries on arguing her side of the story, the camera starts tracking around the couple, this adds drama to the scene.

This shot is a flashback. Reminded by his girlfriend, J Cole reminices of playing in the playground, in this shot we see him with a man that is not his father.

We see another shot of J. Cole performing the lyrics again.

We see a medium/close up of his girlfriend, still shouting at him, amplifying that the lyrics in the verse are all her words directed at Cole, despite him being the one rapping the lyrics.

We return to the flashback, and we see a medium/longshot of the younger J.Cole playing in the playground, from the point of view from the man he was playing with earlier.

We see a close up shot of the adult J.Cole in deep thought with a stern expression on his face, there is a fade transition to the next shot to tie the two together.

We see J.Coles real father looking on his son play on the slide and swings, from the other side of the gate. The bars of the gate is similar to a prison and gives the effect that his dad was locked out from Coles world, as he was never there to help raise him.

We see the younger J. Cole playing from the point of view of his father. The gates between them symbolises that the two never really got the chance to meet. The shot contrasts with a similar one from earlier on, of the young J.Cole playing from the point of view of the other male with him, as one is part of J.Coles life and the other isnt.

Here we see Coles girlfriend basically tell him that hes exactly like his father, as she does so she comes out of focus and pans away. My interpretation of this shot is that upon hearing this, Cole starts to tear up (hence the change in focus) and leaves the apartment (explaining the pan away).

We see Cole leave from his girlfriends point of view, this supports my idea of him becoming teared up and having to leave, as we do not get to see his face.

The previous shot is contrasted with this one. A shot of his father leaving, perhaps he too was teared up and had to leave? We see the bars once again showing that he never crossed to the other side, and didnt become a part of his childs life.

We see a young Cole, look after the man who is his father, whilst holding on to the bars. This shot shows Cole wanted his father in his life.

We see his girlfriend still at the apartment, obviously upset, and with the slightly-blooded, bandaged hand.

This shot is to show that she is hurt, both physically and mentally.

We see a high-angled close up of J.Cole walking.

A longer shot of Cole performing his lyrics than usual, perhaps to emphasise on what he is saying.

We see a long shot of an earlier scene where a young Cole is looking towards where his father had left.

More shots of Cole rapping, as he is telling a story in the song it is really important to emphasise the lyrics aswell as the narrative in the video.

Close up of Cole's feet walking along a road, which strikes a question; where is he going?

Leading up to a crucial part in the song and video, we see quicker changes in shots, this adds pace and drama to the song. J Cole also becomes more animated in his hand gestures, some of which explains his witty lines. (In the line above he mimes typing on a keyboard whilst rapping "she missed her period, like typos")

We see a scene reminiscent of when Coles father watched him in the playground. This time cole is onlooking the kids in the playground. My interpretation of this scene is that after hearing that he is a coward like his father, he returns to the scene where his father walked out on him. In Coles mind, he is deciding whether he has the heart to do the same or not. The bars are there again, though, now they are coloured. Maybe there will be a different ending this time and Cole will decide to raise his kid with his girlfriend. 

We see a close up/Medium shot of Cole thinking, deciding on what he will do.

The last few lines of the rap and we see Cole rap for the final time. The song has reached a climax and it is evident in Cole's movement in this shot.

The camera tracks up to Cole and he turns around, looking at something. It appears as if he has decided.

Nevertheless, we as the audience never find out what he has chosen and we are left to wonder, an excellent cliffhanger.

Out of all my textual analysis' I have found that i have learnt the most from this music video. I have taken inspiration from many parts of this video some of which I will list here:

  -The extreme close up of the girlfriends eyes crying at the beginning of the video.

-The fact that the girlfriend lipsynced some of the lyrics regardless of Cole being the one rapping them (because he is rapping from her point of view it really compliments the whole argument)

-The amount of performance shots of Cole rapping

-The cliffhanger presented to us at the end