It has been over a month since my last post, as my inability to sign in to my Blogger account has kept me away from all of you. Well, I have returned, and I'm ready to kill it. I haven't posted a non-sports blog in a while, but there's something I must write about that will deviate away from my usual sports tendencies.
J. Cole has made a triumphant return to our ears with 2014 Forest Hills Drive, a 13-track journey into the inner workings of "Fayettenam" and the life of a young Jermaine Cole. Discussing this album goes way beyond just the standout tracks, the best beats, and the surprising lack of features, though. 2014 FHD continues what has proven to be an impeccably-assembled storyline that has been developed over the course of Cole's six mixtapes/albums.
For those who are unfamiliar with Jermaine's past work, 2007's The Come Up was Cole's very first mixtape, his unofficial debut. Hardcore fans are more-than-familiar with The Come Up, but overall it received little recognition. Cole then planted his flag in the ground of the hip-hop world with 2009's The Warm Up, an impressively constructed mixtape that saw Cole handle most of the production duties. On this mixtape, Cole flaunted improved lyricism, notable wordplay, and the true implementation of his signature compelling storytelling abilities. He even capped off the mixtape with a rendition of Kanye West's "Last Call", complete with his own monologue at the end of the song.
It was in this monologue that us fans were introduced to Cole's vision of the stories he was sharing in his first two mixtapes as he slaved away in pursuit of a record deal. In the song, he explains that The Come Up is analogous to a high school basketball player working to make the varsity squad, and The Warm Up is about not making the team (ironically, he was signed to Roc-A-Fella records as he was finishing the mixtape). Obviously, this isn't a particularly complex or nuanced narrative, certainly nowhere close to the worlds we've seen created by Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator on Because the Internet and Wolf, respectively. However, I'd like to think that Cole has continued to follow a pattern with his next 3 albums.
Friday Night Lights, his next mixtape, dropped in 2010, marking his final product to be released independently. As with The Warm Up, FNL was received with praise by critics and fans alike, as the mixtape further displayed his growth as a rapper and producer. Tracks like "Before I'm Gone", "In the Morning (feat. Drake)", "Back to the Topic", "Too Deep for the Intro", and "Blow Up" served as glimpses, flashes even, of the greatness most assumed he would capture with his major label debut.
Well, with Cole World: The Sideline Story, Cole certainly arrived as a premier young hip-hop artist that deserved to be mentioned along side Kendrick Lamar (fresh off his critically adored Section.80, which actually contains the J. Cole-produced "HiiiPower"), Drake (Take Care just dropped, 'nuff said), and all the other rising stars. The album may not have catapulted Cole into a Jay-Z-level stratosphere like the latter hinted at by including him on The Blueprint 3's "A Star is Born", but Cole World still stood as an extremely promising and comprehensive hip-hop album.
In the opinion of this blogger (and that's what you're all here for right?), the J. Cole we all know now wasn't born until Born Sinner was released last summer (see what I did there?). BS was easily his biggest album to date, as Cole appeared to have finally taken that "next step" in terms of his ability to put together what I like to refer to as a "complete" song. I only counted a few on all his previous works combined: "Before I'm Gone", "Lost Ones", "Sideline Story", "Dreams", and "Heartache". Born Sinner, however, featured several songs that, upon listening to them, every aspect of the music just clicked. At least with me, I felt myself lost in his words, in his melodies, and in his beats when I listened to "Villuminati", "Runaway", "Rich Niggaz", "Crooked Smile", "Sparks Will Fly", "Forbidden Fruit", and "She Knows". That's 7 excellent tracks, as well as about 10 other very good ones, which all adds up to a borderline classic. Born Sinner undoubtedly marked the arrival of J. Cole, hip-hop superstar. It seemed as if the only way he could go from there is up.
Even though he professed to the first two mixtapes being about making a high school basketball team, I like to think of his albums as stages in his life. Instead of a basketball team, the first three were Cole's progression from amateur rhymer to established hip-hop artist. Cole World was his introduction to the lavish lifestyle that comes with being a rap phenomenon. Born Sinner explored the psyche of what turned out to be a reluctant celebrity; J. Cole was proving to be too grand of an identity for Jermaine to handle. I don't think he would trade his life for any other, but "Hollywood Cole" wasn't truly him.
And that's where 2014 Forest Hills Drive comes in.
This magnificent album is Jermaine Cole, not J. Cole, returning to his roots, his childhood home in his beloved Fayetteville. He takes us back to where he was mentally at that time: an introverted, unsure, yet quietly confident, aspiring rapper who knew he had to escape his environment, but held a strong attachment to his home as well as an aching desire to not abandon his family and friends. I don't know if the guy spent months reading shit he wrote from 2003 or if he looked at old pictures or something, but I genuinely thought I was listening to a 17-year-old on 2014 FHD. The innocent, juvenile "Jermaine" that J. Cole tapped into for this album shines brighter than King Neptune's bald head. His unparalleled transparency is on full display in songs like "Wet Dreamz" and "'03 Adolescence", songs that thrust the listener squarely in the mind of a love-starved Jermaine Cole who is taking on the world one mistake at a time. The former takes us through the tale of Cole's loss of virginity, and how he was NOT a "player" whatsoever. Jermaine finds a long-haired, brown-skinned girl with a fat ass in his math class who he has targeted as his "first". Instead of copping to his lack of expertise in the bedroom, Jermaine lies and instead falsely plays up his sexual prowess. All the while, Cole is serving as a first-person and third-person narrator. He is the subject of the story, yet he will drop wink-wink lines like "Hadn't been in pussy since the day I came out one, but she don't know that" and "Still tryna play it cool, sound like the man/But I was scared to death my nigga, my stomach turnin'/Talking shit knowing damn well I was a virgin" that remind that listener that Cole is reminiscing on this past memory from his youth. Cole's only slip-up in this song is the reveal at the end that the girl is also a virgin. You see, in "Too Deep for the Intro" off FNL, Cole implies that his first time was not with a virgin, as shown in the line, "Should I admit that a slutty bitch was my first smash?/Wasn't experienced so nah, I didn't wear it out". While the second part of that line may still be true, a "slutty bitch" being a virgin is quite the contradiction. Maybe his albums aren't as connected as I make them out to be...
Moving on, "'03 Adolescence" is possibly Cole's masterpiece on the album, and perhaps of his career thus far. The track details essentially every trouble that could plague a teenager growing up in a less-than-ideal environment. Cole discusses his low self-esteem, desire for the material things he doesn't possess, and misconceptions about the positives of throwing away his education in favor of dealing drugs to get rich. That last part, which is contained in the incredible second verse, was without a doubt the most poignant and memorable part of the song. Really I could quote the entire verse here, but instead I'll stick to just a few lines. Following Jermaine's contemplation over getting money by staying in Fayetteville and slinging dope, his friend replies with "He told me, 'Nigga you know how you sound right now?/If you wasn't my mans, I would think you a clown right now/Listen, you everything I wanna be that's why I fucks with you/So how you looking up to me when I look up to you/You bout to go get a degree, I'ma be stuck with two choices/Either graduate to weight or selling number two." A simply phenomenal exchange, Jermaine quickly realizes his mistake, and takes back all his petty complaints as he listens to his forthcoming friend vent about his underwhelming life (further explored in the lines, "I got four brothers, one mother that don't love us/If they ain't want us why the fuck they never wore rubbers?").
Those two songs may be the standouts, but 2014 FHD probably has 2 or 3 more "complete" songs, and even the other 8 songs all have redeeming qualities that round out the album. "St. Tropez" may boast the best production on the album, "No Role Modelz" gives Uncle Phil a well-deserved shoutout and is an exceptionally powerful song overall, and "Apparently" most likely takes the bronze for me. Also, "Intro" may get me more hyped to just live than any song I've ever heard.
This album surpasses Born Sinner as Cole's magnum opus simply because you feel Cole in every single song. With every line he spits, you get pulled deeper and deeper into Cole's brain, and heart, as you almost experience the stories he's illustrating. Born Sinner may produce more hits, it may sell more in the opening weekend, and it may even have better production, but 2014 FHD was an extension of Cole himself, his whole being, everything he is, was, and wants to be, manifested in his art. In my opinion, that is the most bold, ambitious, and impressive thing an artist, especially a hip-hop artist can do: Be completely, 100% real, in the literal sense of the word.
2014 Forest Hills Drive is way more than just a "Fuck Hollywood, I'm just a nigga from Fayetteville, North Carolina" album. It's a head-first dive into how any insecure young person should strive for success in his/her life. Cole opines that all we should seek to attain is true, unfiltered love. It's the concept that Cole is pushing on the entire album: love, freedom, happiness; Seek out whatever activities or careers that bring those feelings out in you, and Just Fucking Do It. And I don't even mean that in the Nike way either.
You know what? I'm not doing Cole's message justice right now with my words. I can't even begin to attempt to explain what love really is better than Cole does during his thank-you's at the end of "Note to Self":
"Came all this way just to learn one thing man, and only one fuckin' thing matters and that's your happiness. And the only way you gon' get to that happiness is through love, real, geniuine, motherfuckin' love man. Not the fake shit, not the Hollywood shit, not the niggas giving you props so you think you the shit. Not motherfuckers knowing you so you think you famous. Not niggas seeing your whip and they want your whip so you feel good cause they want your whip. Or they want your bitch, so you feel better, fuck that, real love. Where your crib is at nigga where your heart is at, where your home is at, where your mom is at, where your girl is at..."
The perfect conclusion to a near-perfect album. A man who is fully aware of how he wants to live his life, despite being a member of the strangest group on Earth: an American celebrity.
See you on your next classic Jermaine. Take your time, you've earned it.
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