J. Cole is back with a new album, and at this point I’m quite tired of seeing people surprise drop albums, it has no shock value anymore and it’s just sort of becoming a norm for releases. What happened to 3 singles, an album, and then 1 or 2 more singles? I miss those days – That’s a rant for another time though.
J. Cole has upped the ante this time, taking his supposed “snooze rap” and injecting some life into it. This was needed after the sub-par record that was 4 Your Eyez Only, his weakest project to date in my opinion. Nonetheless, I’m still a big J. Cole fan so I was excited to listen to this project and it’s good to hear him evolving his sound but I still have issues with some of the directions he takes.
For example, the talking/interludes in between songs are rarely required on non-concept albums purely because they don’t add anything other than time to the album and they dramatically lessen the replayability. But Cole has produced some of his more upbeat and yet downbeat songs here, the beats are those of big bragadocious tunes but the lyrics are hard hitting and they’re straight at a society that he feels is wronging the youth.
This album is one of the best produced Cole has made in years though, if not the best produced he’s made so far which is shocking considering how much I enjoyed Born Sinner but that’s case of it. J. Cole stepped it up a gear this time and it’s great to hear him switching up his flow and evolving his sound – something that was so needed!
8/10