J. Cole is a North-Carolina rapper and producer. He was first known when he signed to Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation. He dropped multiple mixtapes but he really surprised everybody with his “Friday Night Lights” mixtape back in 2010. His first album, “Cole World: The Sideline Story”, appeared the following year and got really good critics. He is now back with his sophomore album “Born Sinner” and released two singles, “Power Trip” and “Crooked Smile”.
What I like about J. Cole is that he is so versatile. He can rap about so many subjects and use many flows to match any kind of beat. We should not forget that he produced the entire album apart from writing all the lyrics and he managed to keep it interesting. There are really a few artists that I can think of that would be able to do all he can do.
He’s never been on my top list of rappers but I’ve always got respect for him. A lot of times, rappers will create a kind of fictional character to help them deliver a message but he always kept it simple, he never tried to be somebody else. For this record he just kept doing his thing, to rap about his life, share his thoughts, etc.
I noticed that rappers nowadays try to impress with punchlines, catchy flows, and visual content and don’t focus on delivering a message, an emotion, etc. I would like to give a big thank you to J. Cole for not making any trap beats and being original with his production. He also didn’t invite a thousand people to join him in every beat, we can hear Kendrick Lamar and Miguel among others.
I was impatient to hear “Let Nas Down” and when I first heard it, so many emotions went through me. Like the title says, he let Nas down and he explains how it happened and what his thoughts about it were. It’s really nice to see younger artists show respect to the pillars of the culture, there’s a lot of competition between rappers and it’s been like that since the beginning. We often see youngsters try to make a name for themselves by dissing everyone, again, trying to impress the public but they are usually the ones who won’t last in the game. It’s probably my favorite song along with the closing track, “Born Sinner”.
Overall a great record, we can see a lot of work and effort put into it. It’s simple, nothing blowminding but it is consistent and brings up a lot of emotions. It’s also cool that the lyrics were on the CD cover, it’s something I really liked.
3.5/5
Roc Nation
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Here’s the clip for “Power Trip”:
Go buy his album, it’s worth it!!:
https://itunes.apple.com/sa/album/born-sinner/id651105680
Follow him on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JColeNC
Official website :
http://www.jcolemusic.com/ca/home