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To me, these two albums are the best examples of a complete body of work within the hip hop genre in past 5 years. They play like albums as opposed to a collection of iTunes singles like most releases nowadays. Both display great story telling, cohesiveness, and honestly over production that suits the MC's style perfectly.
After listening to "Life as Good" at least 50 times, I went back and listened to every Nas album just so I could be sure I wasn't hyping it up solely because it was that "new Nas shit". After doing so, I can safely say that from beginning to end, I prefer this album over all Nas albums excluding Illmatic and for him to release an album like this in today's environment is truly impressive.
With Cole World, it was one of those albums where I had no expectations whatsoever and in fact, hadn't heard a single song from the man before purchasing the album. I literally bought it on a whim because I needed something new to listen to and was extremely surprised to discover how amazing it was from beginning to end (IMO).
Both of these albums stay in steady rotation in my car and ipod to this day and are definitely "personal classics" to me. Having said that, given the typical debate about "classic vs. dope album", "cultural impact" and the like, is it possible that these two albums may just go down in history as true "classics" for the following reasons:
"Life is Good": After years of debate between Nas fans, non-Nas fans and some-time Nas fans, this seems to be the first album where everyone was satisfied. The fans were proud, the haters couldn't really find a reason to hate (aside from Summer on Smash) and the some-timers were claiming it was Nas' return to form. For lack of a better term, it felt like a comeback album, much the same as "Mama Said knock You Out" did for LL. In addition, it was a daring album that record execs likely wouldn't even allow most artists to release since it sounded nothing like the current state of "what's hot". Top that off with 4 Grammy nods and I think you have a strong case for a classic that will stick.
"Cole World": Dope music aside, I think this is going to be one of those albums that people look back on as being the "birth" of a hip hop superstar, much like GRODT was for 50 cent. Yes, I admit it is early but I truly believe that J. Cole will eventually be the younger generations Nas or Jay Z eventually. Some of you are probably laughing right now but keep in mind, it took Jay Z a long time to become "Jay Z". In ten years, these guys will be over 50 and out of the game. Naturally, a new line of hip hop elite will take their place and I think J Cole will be one of those artists. www.newzbomb.com
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