Translating Jaden Smith's new rap philosophies for the people of Earth

Jaden Smith, celebrity kid and dilettante philosopher, just released three new tracks onto the world. As is to be expected, they are thinly veiled tenets of his personal dao.

If you’ll recall, he and his sister Willow Smith made eyebrows arch in a weirdly new-agey New York Times interview last fall, in which they discussed the space-time continuum and babies. According to Jaden, we are all “theoretical physicists”; a belief he obviously holds dear to his heart and has imbued into every song on his upcoming album, This Is An Album (it’s funny when Jaden is and isn’t literal). We thought to channel our own theoretical physicists and attempt to decode his and sister’s doctrines from tracks “Bike”, “Moon In My Room”, and “11:30 PM” for the people of Earth, although we’re not entirely sure what we’ve come up with here.

Song: “Bike Ft. Willow Smith”
While Jaden is taking a free-style approach to this jam (it’s all apart of the process), spitting bars about sundry miscellany like Sunday brunch and admiring someone’s sandal, it’s Willow who gives us the real takeaways. I can’t front, though: the girl can blow. But what she’s saying, who’s to know.

Lyrics:
Wind and rain, can’t stop me/ I am on the road now
Any way I can get a taste of that higher beingness, I will take
Another little more than a cushion now and I’ll push it down
Tell me that we’re friends and you’ll hold me down/ and that’s okay, “We’re all the same, all the same”
Why you say that?! Wind and rain…wind and rain

Interpretation:
Willow is one determined 14-year-old. The pre-teen shaman is on a journey, seeking nirvana or some form of “higher beingness” (her words, not mine), and she’ll take any opportunity that comes her way to help find it, inclement weather be damned. She’s going to push down any roadblocks like one does a pillow into a sofa, and is asking her friends for support along the way. But the youngster is still confused by some conversation they’ve had, but wind and rain, wind and rain, y’know?

Song: “11:30 PM Ft. Willow Smith”
Jaden is really channeling good pal Childish Gambino on this spare love song, with the slowed-down speech, garbled lyrics, and emo vibes. There is a mention of a baby, but I think this is more “bae” and less “prana energy.”

Lyrics:
She texted me and told me to hurry/ I checked my watch and it read 11:30
We in the temple, sipping on a Shirley/ Hey, I like that baby cuz her hair was curly
Hey, and maybe it’s because of the freckles, her cheeks, her nose, and her dimples
Fell in love and it’s so unofficial… Later coming over, you can always cry up on my shoulder/ Yeah, y’know I’m getting older

Interpretation:
Jaden’s love song is “so unofficial”: he’s falling for a girl who has a pretty cute face, enjoys Shirley Temples, and can always depend upon him to vent to when things aren’t going so well. I’m not sure what Jaden considers “older”, but it’s apparently conducive to being emotionally available. I am troubled about his curfew, though: Where is a 16-year-old going at 11:30 pm?

Song: “Moon In My Room Ft. Willow Smith”
Starry rooms are a running theme in Jaden’s work, but this time around there is something much deeper going on. We’re talking Jaden Smith, New Age life coach, telling you about centering your energy. Pay attention.
Lyrics:
Welcome to the 4th dimension/ where everything you said is a perception and a reflection of your perspective/Frequency is less aggressive, too much love in the air, no room for tension
Love is the center of attention/ Resurrection.

Sin City voiceover: The night’s as hot as hell. It’s a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. I am staring at a goddess. She’s telling me that she wants me. I’m not going to waste one more second wondering how I’ve got this lucky.

Maybe we’re all connected?/ Don’t you see a flower that’s a pendant hanging from my necklace?
Together we can self-heal through transcendence, self-heal through transcendence
The sun is down and full of now, so I grab my friends and go to my room now/ and sit in my doom now.
I wish I could fly away now/ Guess I’ll go get a broom now/
Well I would get blue now/ We can sit in my tree house.

Interpretation:
It’s all happening, ya’ll. We’re in the 4th dimension, we’re walking through walls, and love is everything and everything is love. While obnoxiously gonzo, I gather this is actually Jaden’s armchair intellectual song, his opus dedicated to the real-life theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell, also a poet like Jaden, is known for waxing on about the relationship between nature and science and religion; but unlike Jaden, he’s got a degree in this stuff. Jaden of course muddles the pathos with a Sin City voiceover, which has me thinking the would-be rapper has cut the vibe to humblebrag about a would-be goddess who is into him. Then the song cuts back to Smith rationalizing that we’re all connected, and that we can transcend through self-healing, which are all valid points… But what exactly are you healing from, Jaden? The box office numbers for After Earth? No matter, Jaden escapes to his tree house with his friends to feel the feels, as the onset of an inevitable doom washes over him. Which doom? I suppose what all teens mourn: growing up.

Marjon Carlos is a style and culture writer for Fusion who boasts a strong turtleneck game and opinions on the subjects of fashion, gender, race, pop culture, and men’s footwear.