Matthew McConaughey and Jimmy Fallon rapping 'Just Because' is the pep talk we all need
McConaughey woke up in the middle of the night with these verses and rhythm in his head and turned them into an inspirational book for kids.
"Just Because" is Matthew McConaughey's children's book filled with rhyming bits of wisdom.
At 2:30 a.m., actor Matthew McConaughey woke up from a dream with a jingle in his head. He got up, started writing it down, and just like that, a children's book was born.
McConaughey's picture book, "Just Because" may be for kids, but adults are finding inspiration for themselves in it as well. A viral video of McConaughey country-rapping the book's couplets with talk show host Jimmy Fallon got people talking about the lessons on the book that speak to them the most, such as the person who said they wanted a "Just because I want one more doesn't mean that I need two" sign for their refrigerator.
The "alright, alright, alright" actor and the famously musical Fallon start off just lowkey "reading" the book with a little background beat, but soon they each have a mic in their hands in a full-on performance.
With lines like, "Just because you can pull it off, doesn't mean that you should do it, and just because you fail that don't mean that you blew it," McConaughey and Fallon manage to make a sing-songy rap out of some genuinely good life lessons.
Watch:
@fallontonight Jimmy and #MatthewMcConaughey rap their way through “Just Because”. #FallonTonight
So how did Matthew McConaughey end up writing a children's book in the first place? The father of three told the hosts of Podcrushed that he'd been thinking a lot about fatherhood and how the lens of parenthood changes everything. He said when something consumes his mind, he tends to have dreams about it.
"This was a dream I had, and I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, I went and wrote it down. All I had was the jingle, 'Just because they threw the dart don't mean that it stuck, and just because I got some skills don't mean that there's no luck.' It was a song. I woke up and I got this great Bob Dylan diddy: 'Just because you're wailing doesn't meant that you're a crier, just because I lied does not mean that I'm a liar.' And so the hook was 'just because,' and I had the beat, and I just wrote from 2:30 to 6:30 in the morning. Went back, got in bed. Got up and looked at it and was like, 'This is good. This is fun.'"
He showed the idea to his kids, who each had different takes on different couplets. The conversations that the "just because" statements sparked in his own family demonstrated the potential for the book to be a conversation starter for all parents and kids, which is what McConaughey hopes it will do.
It even offers food for thought for people without kids.
"I didn't know I needed a pep talk from Matthew McConaughey, let alone in this form, but alright, alright," wrote one commenter.
"It's supposed to be a kids book but I also lowkey need this at 35," wrote another.
"Would it be weird to buy this for my team at work?" asked one person.
"Just because I went straight to Amazon to buy this book don't mean I'm a sucker," wrote another.
McConaughey seems to have a hit on his hands. You can find "Just Because" on Amazon or support independent booksellers by purchasing through Bookshop.org.