J. Cole, born Jermaine Lamarr Cole, has quickly become one of the more influential artists of our generation and nothing provides more evidence for this fact than the numbers his most recent album release has done. Released on April 20, 2018, it began smashing records immediately by racking up 64.5 million streams on Apple Music, breaking the previous record which was held by Drake’s ‘Views’. Accumulating another 36.7 million streams through Spotify on its first day, its popularity allowed it to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 making it J. Cole’s fifth number one album.
A clever and skilled lyricist, J. Cole has been making statements with each of his albums and ‘KOD’ follows suit. A message of addiction and triumph, this album dives into many of the societal problems J. Cole perceives, such as the glorification of drugs and a celebrity hierarchy. Solidifying his spot as the outsider in rap, he produces his first album of late with another artist featured on it. The only problem is that the artist, known as kiLL Edward, is actually J. Cole’s alter ego so he technically does have another album with no features and solidifies his stance on featuring artists with the line, “Only gon’ say this one time, then I’ll dip n***as ain’t worthy to be on my shit” from the title track “KOD”.
As for my opinion, a fan of J. Cole but certainly no Stan, I was happy with the piece as it provided a few “bangers” which I can listen to consistently. This has been the theme for much of Cole’s work lately as he looks to take a more meaningful approach to his music in an attempt to bring about change in society and our national community as a whole. With new Cole albums, I have come to expect a couple songs that go very hard and I enjoy, a few that really press into the political or racial divide in our world, and a few more emotional almost ballad type songs that I don’t truly care for. Not that the songs are bad or I disagree with the content of them but I simply don’t listen for the emotional and politically driven rap as much which is kind of what J. Cole is getting at with this album. If I am going to have an artist drop something, I would prefer it would be something that I can bump my head to and play every day without getting sick of it and I don’t think I am alone in saying that as people look to find an escape in things like music and movies and shouldn’t have to be reminded of the crazy world we live in while they attempt to enjoy these things. That being said, these are ARTISTS that are performing these songs and as such, I can see the appeal that there should be a form of expression or an undertone of what they believe as this is how they are able to proclaim their thoughts and/or rise against what they believe to be wrong. As for this album, my 2 songs that will remain bumping in my car will be “KOD” and “ATM”. Both feature a slower-type intro before having Cole drop hard on the beat and just go right to work spitting his signature style and mild repetition that seems to be gaining more popularity in the recent months. All in all, J. Cole remains one of the most beloved and hated rappers of this generation and will continue to have some people blindly love his work, with others eviscerating it without listening to it. -( . )
Straight From The Tit 