Brett Guillaume
Janel Spencer
WRT 101S
19 September 2019
Rhetorical Analysis of Joyner Lucas’ song “I’m Sorry”
“I know that you can hear me, all I need is like five minutes” These are the words of Joyner Lucas in his song, “I’m Sorry,” published on August 12, 2016. The topic covered in the music video is mental illness, and how it is a serious issue. He supports his claims by first, showing both sides of the story, then showing fairly graphic images, then using expletive language, and finally using rhetorical strategies like ethos, patho, and logos. Lucas’s purpose is to inform the viewer of how serious mental illness can affect people in order to persuade and educate the viewer that we as a society should be considerate to people that are affected with a mental illness. He adopts a depressing tone for his audience in order to convey his point. Joyner Lucas effectively uses his little ethos, and unbelievable amounts of pathos and logos to convey his point to the audience on how serious mental illness is.
Gary Maurice, formerly known on stage as Joyner Lucas, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, poet, and actor from Worcester Massachusetts. To give a little insight, “I’m Sorry” is a song off of Lucas’ popular album (508) 507-2209. Yes, his album title is his phone number; he did this for an abundance of reasons. The main reason was for people to reach out to him for help when they are dealing with mental illness. If you were to call the number, you would hear his voicemail, the same voicemail(s) heard in most of his songs throughout the album. He wrote this album to discuss the current highs and lows of his life, and ties his recent voicemails into his songs off the album. Focusing on the song “I’m Sorry” Lucas says in an interview with Billboard, “I’ve always felt misunderstood. Growing up it’s been my word against the teachers or my parents word and nobody would ever listen to me.” This establishes Lucas’ little ethos because no one ever used to listen to him, but now with his fame and popularity, people will listen to and hear what he has to say, and thus he becomes a voice for the voiceless, or others who may have felt similarly. Lucas also establishes his ethos by giving both sides to the story, the side of the mentally ill person in the video, and the side of how he feels after the person takes their life.“I’m Sorry” currently has 54.6 million views on YouTube in three years, which most would consider a lot. This much exposure to the song means that people are watching and sharing the video, because they feel like it has a great message, furthermore establishing Lucas’ ethos.
Throughout the song, Lucas appeals to pathos by convincing the audience that mental illness is a real problem in this world. Lucas’ writes in his song during the second verse, “but I don’t understand how we couldn’t prevent this shit, you took the easy way out, goddammit, you did I mean, look what you did, I’m so f—ing upset how could you be so selfish?” Verse one of the song is the perspective through the mentally ill person, and verse two of the song is Lucas’ perspective. Lucas is appealing to the audience by saying “I don’t understand how we couldn’t prevent this shit,” Lucas wants the audience to wake up and realise that mental illness is a serious issue, because people are actually taking their lives because of it. On behalf of the second part of the quote, Lucas is expressing his frustration about his friend taking his own life, Lucas calls him selfish, and expresses how upset he is. With Lucas saying this, he is also saying to the audience that taking your own life isn’t the solution to the problem, you will be remembered as selfish. In conclusion, this part of the song is very effective in appealing to the audiences emotions.
Works Cited
Lucas, Joyner. “Joyner Lucas – I’m Sorry (508)-507-2209.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Aug. 2016,
Accessed 19 September 2019 www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjKbw1Cqpt0.
Saponara, Michael. “Joyner Lucas On Crafting ‘(508) 507-2209,’ His Competitive Streak & Why
He Thinks Logic Is ‘Corny’.” Billboard, 29 Aug. 2017, Accessed 19 September 2019
Vegas, Leon. “I’m Sorry Lyrics.” Genius, 10 Aug. 2016, Accessed 19 September
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