on first listen, I hear a LOT of Kendrick influence in this. It starts to sound a bit more like Cole's traditional sound towards the latter half of the album
i have mixed feelings and will need to re-listen to form a full opinion (just heard it once on the drive to work this morning)
final track, "1985" is gonna have a lot of SoundCloud rappers mad though lol
I got beef with secondhand stories or opinions on a situation the artist might not have actually experienced, but he got some hype tracks and some boring ones.
One thing I think a lot might notice is the ending, kind of felt too short or like it just dropped off.
And that new video really reminds me of Kendrick with "dick aint free"
It is a pickup compared to 4 youre eyez only, that ish was really personal.
6/10, nice beats, lyrics kind of hammy but current and topical, still a little sleepy though.
10. "I enjoyed it more than I thought I would" In response to Reply # 0
I've never been a huge Cole fan, for the "usual" reasons. In fact, about the only album I'd liked of his before this was "2014 Forest Hills." But, that being said, I found myself enjoying this one on first listen. The lyrics are pretty good. Musically, I'd say it borders on under-produced, but most of the time the bare bones aesthetic works.
So I'm pleasantly surprised here. I don't think he's the greatest MC ever or even of his "generation," but this is still a quite good album.
legsdiamond Member since May 05th 2011 79560 posts
Sun Apr-22-18 08:23 AM
11. "If you fall asleep listening to JCole or any other rapper" In response to Reply # 0 Sun Apr-22-18 08:23 AM by legsdiamond
you prolly have a medical condition.
Worst criticism of an artist in the history of rap. Just don’t listen instead of lying about trying and dozing off. It’s kike crying Jordan face. It was funny at first but now folks just trolling his releases with that dumb ass fake criticism.
**************** TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*
14. "It's a lazy critique." In response to Reply # 11 Sun Apr-22-18 04:47 PM by squeeg
I'm sure there are plenty of folks who find J. Cole boring, but I'm just as sure there are plenty more who are simply parroting everyone else. "J. Cole is boring" is as much of a meme as "Platinum with no features."
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"so when you write you have to decide if what you're doing is worth writing. relatable isn't always interesting or worth writing about. we all wipe our ass, but who wants to read an article about it?
J Cole has a problem deciphering between relatable and interesting."
"mans got a song about scrolling thru pics on IG and paying taxes. Relatable, yes, in the way that we do in fact all do those things. Interesting? No."
The songs of J. Cole I've listened to I like, but his albums never grab me. This echoes my thoughts to a T.
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Def a step up from his previous album. Production is on point and Cole is a dope emcee. Dude just needs to stop tryna harmonize. Not his lane. I know he wants to go platinum with no features but get Miguel or somebody to sing those parts.
fav tracks: Photograph, The Cut Off, ATM, Brackets, Friends, 1985
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Conceptually, I've been waiting for someone to tackle this. I actually think Cole is a good choice for trying to speak on the state of hip hop. He's popular enough, he used to write dope enough. I haven't really liked much from him since the first couple mix tapes. I liked the false prophets song - it's maybe even more relevant today considering what Ye is currently doing.
But the execution was kinda triddash to me. Relied heavily on freaking the flows but they miss most of time for me.
He's got a couple cool concepts: Once an addict - can relate, but doesn't wow me lyrically. Last verse on Motivate is okay. Brackets could be a better song if the lyrics were better.
I don't find him to be an elite emcee like a lot of people do.
Maybe if he worked with other producers, we could get a different Cole in terms of how he attacked the beat. Safe to assume this is why some of my favorite performances by Cole are features on other cats songs IE that old Wale joint. The above mentioned early career mix tapes.
I read recently somewhere that Cole has an issue with deciphering between relatable and interesting.
I think that's really accurate. There's a reason I connect with Wu, Prodigy, Outkast, Beanie Sigel, UGK, and countless others more than Cole when have almost no business connecting to them say more than Cole. But I find all of those artists infinitely more interesting which makes me decipher and think about their lyrics on 2nd and 3rd levels where I find something I relate to.
I dunno - trying to have more to say on the subject other than Cole is Eyeore - though I don't disagree that Cole is in fact Eyeore lol.
17. "Another good one from Cole" In response to Reply # 0
FYEO is still my favorite complete album of his, but this album has standout tracks that many felt were lacking from that project. "ATM", "Motiv8", and "Kevin's Heart" specifically. A couple of other tracks stand alone for me while the rest I'd rather hear in context of the album.
One thing I have to say about Cole is that he's very much evolved into a good musician and not just a guy who raps. Both his production and songwriting have grown and become more nuanced. I've enjoyed watching him evolve. As I listened to this album, I thought about how far he's come from the Sideline Story... and even how far he's come since Born Sinner where you could see his growth from Sideline Story. When he started, I could tell his production ambition was greater than his talent. He's kinda reached that sweet spot where he can bring what's in his head to fruition for the most part. Whether one likes him or not, he doesn't sound like someone who started producing and writing songs yesterday. Alotta guys who start out as spitters never reach that point.
That said, can you point to which songs have a "Kendrick influence"? People have said that on here, but the only place I can even say he sounds "like" Kendrick is the "will I fall, will I fly" singing part on ATM, and that's mainly because of the voice change which Kendrick didn't invent, so I'm not sure I can attribute anything here to Kendrick. The accusation just reminds me of when people were saying hashtag flow was biting Drake when he didn't make it... he just did it so much that people associated it with him. What I DO hear is that his sound here is more "contemporary" than it usually is. As I mentioned above, his talent is much closer to his ambition than it used to be.
i had only listened to his first album before. I remember i enjoyed it but never wanted to go back to anything on it. this one is pretty good to me.
i think i added the whole album to my current music playlist and i have enjoyed the tracks when they come on. might listen to the album in full again. might check out older albums too.
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