We all try to find the meaning of why we, humans exist. Some people try to make sense of life and others don’t. At the end of a person’s life, we mourn and recognize by appreciating who they were, how much they’ll be missed and sometimes what great achievements they accomplished – the positive impact they had on others.
Living a good and long life is often celebrated, instead of grieved. The person is missed, but the feeling of loss isn’t as big as someone who dies young. How can we make sense of someone who dies at a young age, especially a person who didn’t try to take his or her life by suicide or drug use? For that reason, sometimes life can make no sense and we can’t find any reason why it wouldn’t happen to such an innocent life.
With the media, we are informed by deaths of public figures and even ‘everyday’ people in a community from the local paper in the obituaries section. A death of a well-known person is absolutely newsworthy and people from all of over the country and the world express sadness. Why do we have such heartbreak of public figures that pass away? They never knew us and we only knew them through their work or presence. It makes sense why we do; the person might’ve been an actor, politician, activist, writer, musician, and so on and that particular person touched you with their actions/work.
A gloomy morning on March 18, 2010, I logged onto Facebook like I religiously do when I start my day. Reading through the daily news feed, five or more people had their status as: RIP Nujabes. Oh no! Okay, so Nujabes is an underground Japanese artist who creates beats of soul and hip-hop. He doesn’t sing on his tracks but many of them feature underground lyricists, singers and rappers.
Nujabes is recognized internationally and his music includes artists who carry on a ‘real’ message. I Googled his passing to find out how he died and while I was doing so, I had a prejudgment that his cause of death had to do with drugs. Of course I have this stereotype of musicians; generally, many of them do die from drug overdoses. I found an article from LA Weekly and it wasn’t because of an overdose!
“Nujabes (born Jun Seba), a Japanese hip-hop producer, was killed in a car accident in Tokyo. Nujabes crashed when leaving the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Nujabes was 36 years old when he died. The car crash that killed Nujabes took place on February 26, 2010, the same day a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan,” LA Weekly.
From a car accident…truly saddening for such a talented artist. I felt sadness because his music made my day better, I could relate to the lyric content and the beats are amazing. This public figure touched my heart and a person who I didn’t know at all, touched me. Music is art, art is what I love and Nujabes was one of the many artists I appreciate.
Nujabes death is an example of how life can make no sense. A good person (or at least from our knowledge) with a gift from God, dies so young. For that reason, I feel like life isn’t fair but we all need to be confronted with death to be able to deal with one and realize it does happen. The truth can hurt.
One more thing I want to share is that, I noticed many popular musicians have died young. For example, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Tupac, Biggie, John Lennon, Elvis, and the list continues. Why does God allow such gifted people to leave the earth and take away a talent that many of us love? It’s almost like they’re too amazing that God only wants them to stay on the earth for shorter period because he only knows all the amazing creations they can continue to produce and it can’t be revealed. Sounds ridiculous, I know but regardless, I can accept it.
Enojoy the beautiful music by Nujabes - Eternal Reflection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnL3aTVQS9k
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