With the Bears’ season concluded, there’s a line from Phonte’s 2018 masterpiece album, “No News Is Good News,” that I’ve been thinking about. At the end of the album, there’s a drop after the final song. A voice comes on and says: “If you’re on the receiving end of this message, congratulations, you made it.” The drop acts as punctuation, but it’s more than that. The album is a triumph in personal growth. Throughout it, Phonte challenges himself and those around him that acknowledgement of mistakes means little without the impetus to change one’s behavior.
Bears game-day DJ Jay Illa described it as Jay-Z’s “4:44” for regular people. It’s an astute observation. As much as I appreciated the honesty and vulnerability of Jay-Z on that album, relating to the problems of a billionaire who’s married to another billionaire is a tough mental exercise.
