Jay-Z Wouldn’t Let You Run From the Hard Stuff

We can’t avoid the pain. So lean in

“Time don’t go back, it go forward

Can’t run from the pain, go towards it” — Jay-Z, “Lost Ones”

And another one! We back like Pat Sajak for another edition of my weekly Medium column, “What Would Hov Do?”, where I unpack some of your most important questions and daily struggles with the help of Jay-Z lyrics.

With Election Day less than a week away, our anonymous reader — who we’re calling “I’m Done With 2020” — writes:

“I want to know how Hov would handle anxiety, especially amidst the pandemic, election — just the entirety of 2020?”

Listen, 2020 has been a DUMPSTER FIRE. Like, that lil’ GIF with that dog sitting at his lil’ office desk while his surroundings are engulfed in flames?

That’s 2020. Cheeto Head is in office, unarmed Black folx are still very much the victims of police brutality, we’re still wearing masks (some of us anyway), and Tic died at the end of Lovecraft Country (my bad: SPOILER ALERT). We’ve all pretty much had it up to here with anxiety, stress, and the issues that…