| I know J. Cole has become a meme for pretty much everybody on here, but I think many of the opinions about Cole are more in reaction to his fanbase than his music. The fans that go on and on about the whole platinum with no features thing are also, a lot of the time, the ones that say today's rap is trash. As a result, many of the people that disagree with this bold statement are automatically put on the offensive, and transitively, have to hate Cole. rAs you'd assume, I'm not one of those people. I believe this album is a well thought out, fully realized piece of art. I was honestly amazed in how he was able to tell the story of his then recently departed friend's life, while paralleling it with his own. Cole's flow on these tracks is effortless; a lot of the times it feels like he's just talking right to you. Although the track listing is put together in a specific way to tell this story, it never feels forced. rAs for the music, I definitely agree that it shares similarities with Kendrick's TPAB, but write to completely write it off because Cole takes a more traditional approach to incorporating jazz into the music seems dismissive.r |
