Miguel Misconceptions

Miguel, a heavy hitting R&B artist born and raised in Los Angeles released his fourth studio album “War & Leisure” early on December 1. In his past projects, Miguel has made a name for himself by infusing trippy melodies and romantic lyrics as he became a trailblazer in the new age of R&B alongside fellow contemporary artists such as the Weeknd and Frank Ocean. After the release of his majorly appreciated third album “Wildheart,” Miguel found himself taking the next year and a half off as he turned himself into an advocate of transcendental meditation and a promoter of the program “Schools Not Prison.” The album is 12 songs in length and carries features from the likes of J. Cole, Rick Ross, Kali Uchis and Travis Scott. Throughout the
The album itself finds Miguel in entirely different state of being, where as opposed to singing about sex and love, he juxtaposes the traits of sex and politics and satirizes the ideologies and misconceptions behind each item. The Mexican-African American born singer does not come across as a dark and twisted artist, more so as a happy and devilish person on this album. Contrary to the rhythms and sounds that accompany the lyrics on this album, the songs themselves are depressing as Miguel takes shots at racial inequality, dishonesty in the government and police brutality. The song “Banana Clip” takes the popular Latin-American sound and transforms it into an upbeat track where Miguel seems to glorify the use of weapons and compares the use of such to his love for a girl he’s involved with as he sings “M16 on my lap, Korean missiles in the sky, No matter where I go on the map, You got my protection, Banana clip on my love for you, Let it ring like, Yeah, I let it ring like, It's like I'm trigger
Cole’s cameo appearance gives the song “Come Through and Chill” a whole other meaning. Miguel initially paints a scene of staying indoors with a lover and listening to the sounds of the strange thunder outside and it’s really that simple until J. Cole drops in his lyrics about political and social injustice as he rhymes, “Know you've been on my mind like Kaepernick kneelin' Or police killings, or Trump sayin' slick s*** Manipulatin' poor white folks because they're ignant Blind to the struggles of the ones that got the pigment.” This song serves as the pivoting point of the album where it becomes clear to the listener exactly what Miguel wants the world to