Notebook exhibits the importance and healing qualities that can come from writing down ones personal experience, putting thought to form in order to reach a higher state of awareness, and to work out ones inner experience through writing rhymes and poetry. This song is also a sharing of how hip-hop, and music in general, saved Jackson's life, and helped him to move in a positive direction in his adolescence. His notebook is everything to him, it contains everything meaningful... it is a sacred object in Jackson Whalan's world of rhyme. Notebook is about having fun with writing, which is the primary activity that Jackson engages in in his process. It is a meditation. The notebook is a metaphysical oasis, a place to live in, a space to be in, a calming mood to feel. One is able to make oneself eternal and everlasting through ones words.
lyrics
I must say that I'm frustrated and I can't take it/The only way to alleviate it is to just say it/So I write it down and now I'm feeling better/Rhymes clever help me cope with whatever comes up/All the impressions that cross my mind turn into a lyrical line helping me feel fine/And keep it real because it's time/Leaving troubles behind and pen and paper combine/Enter the shrine, writing and repeating a phrase over and over/ With composure, now I'm feeling motivated/Seeking to channel the sacred and leave people activated/Acclimated, to writing rhymes on these pages/I was called to be an mc when I was eleven years old to have my story be told/Be bold in a world that is cold/Taking notes as pages fold, searching for rhymes made of gold...
[Hook]
I turn to the pages in my notebook
Big plans in my notebook
Writing songs in my notebook
Being strong in my notebook
Look at you in my notebook
Big secrets in my notebook
All love in my notebook
It's all perfect in my notebook
I save the world in my notebook
I'm writing rhymes in my notebook [x2]
It's hip-hop in my notebook
Digging through crates and baskets of notebooks/From years past my word is all that will last/Back when I was strange and crazy/Or letting sadness phase me/ I needed writing to save me/ From destructive paths I would have crashed fast/Without my craft and let my emotions all splash/Through this ink as I scribe and scribble words/Every rhyme a surprise helping me feel awake and alive/Discovering my drive, new ideas arrive/Sometimes I'm deprived, writers block might just stop/Inspiration is the shock so much in stock/Flock to it be a fluent hip-hop student/Joining a worldwide movement/Letting go of fear and pursue it nothing to it just do it [just do it]
[Hook]
I want you to be in my notebook
I want you to see in my notebook
I want you to know in my notebook
I want you to go in my notebook
I want you to flow in my notebook
I want you to dance in my notebook
I want you to write in my notebook
You're gonna be aright in my notebook
Rhyming tight in my notebook
I'm taking flight in my notebook
I bring the light in my notebook
Coffee stain in my notebook
credits
from The Aposoul,
released March 18, 2014
Jackson Whalan 2014
Production Assistance: Robby Baier and Substation Studio
Mastering by Will Schillinger at Pilot Studios
