Light
by Big Sean (featuring Jeremih)

Album: I Decided (2017)
Charted: 97
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Big Sean raps about finding the light within himself in the face of adversity. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Beats 1 about the 1 Decided's theme - unlocking your inner potential and making the most out of life - the G.O.O.D. Music artist said he tried to capture it all on this song's opening lines:

    I spent my whole life trying to improvise
    I'm not saying that s--t for you to sympathize
    I spent my whole life trying to find the light that's at the end of the tunnel
    I should have realized it was inside
  • Sean believes he wasn't living up to his potential before his Dark Sky Paradise album and the feeling of inadequacy helped inspire I Decided: "I was in a terrible relationship," he said. "I was just in a weird place in my life where I was relying on other people… and that was the first time I experience being not 100 percent satisfied with myself. I had to upgrade my mind, I had to upgrade myself as a person."
  • Jeremih joins Sean on the track to encourage him in is search for his inner light. The R&B crooner tells him, "No matter how much they gon' shade you…They can't stop the shine."
  • The Lawrence Lamont-directed music clip features Sean driving a white van, collecting victims of senseless violence. Each victim is bathed in a ray of light, and in the end, Sean joins them as they peacefully depart this planet. "We shot this video a couple months ago and sucks to see these scenes are still consistently playing out in real life…even down to this week," Sean said, likely alluding to the shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards by police. "It's disheartening sometimes to see that not much has changed when it comes to hate, police brutality n just overall people losing their lives too early."

    "But when I wrote this song, it was to reassure myself that no matter what happens, they can't take away our Soul, our confidence, our ideas, n all that makes us shine," he continued. "This song isn't a single but is still super important to me, so I paid for a lot of this outta pocket to make sure we got this out. Rest in peace to all those who have lost life due to senseless actions. As I always say, each one of us have the power to make a change, it starts within… the inner Light."

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