Albums J. Cole - 4 Your Eyez Only (Discussion Thread)

[Paper Boi]

ville mentality got me fukked up.

 

[Giselle]

And when I say step out of his zone, I also mean progression, evolution, improvement. Artists often stay stagnant and rarely evolve as the human beings they portray on records. Take for example Drake who is the same person he's been rapping as since he came out. Meanwhile, Cole has gotten married, became a father, dropped his mainstream chasing aspirations, and went through an entire character change since he dropped Sideline Story in 2011.

& this is where you are wrong since you want to bring up personal life. He is stilll much similar to the same person from fhd which is why he decided to tell someone else's story instead of his own. He can no longer write real stuff about himself because it is bad for his image. No more cheating songs because he is married and a lot of his songs had to do with him cheating. He is also supposedly not a father. As I said earlier, go back to itunes and you'll see that they asked itunes to delete that part. There is something fishy going on, but we won't discuss that here lol. He has grown since his first mixtapes, ofcourse he has. I didn't say he was the same as that far back. (outside of production) He became stagnant around born sinner and fhd imo. He is still a good writer and storyteller though.

Ofcourse drake will be talking about similar things. Drake makes songs about his real/personal life and he has been living the same life for a while now as a rapper. The only difference I see is he has gotten more cocky and less nice to his women in his songs. Just like cole always talks about cheating on his gf (now wife) and how he is so "real" and is no longer chasing hollywood/fame "mainstream". He did that for born sinner and fhd. If it wasn't for certain things happening, we would've gotten another album similar to it back in feb. Instead, he went back to story telling and picked a story that matches his public image of exactly what you described in the bold.

Y'all fell for it too.

 

[45123]

& this is where you are wrong since you want to bring up personal life. He is stilll much similar to the same person from fhd which is why he decided to tell someone else's story instead of his own. He can no longer write real stuff about himself because it is bad for his image. No more cheating songs because he is married and a lot of his songs had to do with him cheating. He is also supposedly not a father. As I said earlier, go back to itunes and you'll see that they asked itunes to delete that part. There is something fishy going on, but we won't discuss that here lol. He has grown since his first mixtapes, ofcourse he has. I didn't say he was the same as that far back. (outside of production) He became stagnant around born sinner and fhd imo. He is still a good writer and storyteller though.

Ofcourse drake will be talking about similar things. Drake makes songs about his real/personal life and he has been living the same life for a while now as a rapper. The only difference I see is he has gotten more cocky and less nice to his women in his songs. Just like cole always talks about cheating on his gf (now wife) and how he is so "real" and is no longer chasing hollywood/fame "mainstream". He did that for born sinner and fhd. If it wasn't for certain things happening, we would've gotten another album similar to it back in feb. Instead, he went back to story telling and picked a story that matches his public image of exactly what you described in the bold.

Y'all fell for it too.

I'm not gonna get into a back and forth about J. Cole with you ma'am I already said what I needed to say, no further discussion required For an album you don't like / an artist you have mixed feelings about you're posting in this thread a lil too much

 

[Giselle]

I'm not gonna get into a back and forth about J. Cole with you ma'am I already said what I needed to say, no further discussion required For an album you don't like / an artist you have mixed feelings about you're posting in this thread a lil too much

Who said I had mixed feeling about Cole? Who said I didn't like the album? Why are you assuming things? You obviously don't know.

 

[Izanami]

Wonder if dude he is speaking about on this the dude he rap about on "Cousins" or the dude on "03 Adolescence"

 

[Destined-2-Shine_HNIC]

First Eyez then Earz...

 

[Deafheaven]

These Cole stans really have pieced together some asinine theory that this is some The Cool level concept album when this pretty much the same shyt hes been rapping about since he came out what the fukk

 

[Maximus Rex]

b-b-but the concept is him rapping from the perspective of his dead friend to his daughter who cares if the music is trash!

You should bow your heads and worship it just based off that!

 

[Mr. Leonidas]

I went into a media blackout for this project. I didn't even listen to the 2 songs he released last week, and I had no idea they weren't on the album, until I actually listened to the album. I'm a Cole fan, been rocking with him since The Warm Up HARD, put a lot of people I know in real life onto his music. It's wild to see how his career has literally "blown up" (remember how many songs/references he used to make about making it, lol) over the years. His loyal fanbase/stans are down for him no matter what. And he's earned that because of how he's navigated the industry... his marketing team knows his audience and he knows how to energize them. Me on the other hand? I wasn't going to buy into the hype. I didn't listen to the songs, I didn't watch the documentary, I'm not dumb... I said I'll just wait for the music in it's entirety and make my own unbiased opinion on the album

So with that said, I thought FHD was like a 6 out of 10. People hyped it, people called it a classic, people always propping it up because it went 2X Plat without any features, and you know the rest.... when really, it wasn't even better than Born Sinner. You can break down both albums, and Born Sinner is more interesting, and has far more variety to the records on it.

I listened to this new album late last night. Maybe I was a bit tired, but on my first listen I was literally falling asleep. When the 1st song came on, it was funny because my wife was sitting next to me as it played and the first thing she said was, "This nikka needs to start getting some vocalists to sing some of these parts"... One of my main complaints about FHD was the singing Cole did all over the album, so when this intro cuts on and he's continuing that I was like "fukk here we go again". It's a decent intro, and I appreciated it more today when I played it. But initially I was like more struggle vocals incoming here.

The standouts for me are Immortal, Neighbors and Folding Clothes. I like the She's Mine joints too. They kind of reminded me of an Andre 3K kind of vibe. The last song is good too. Everything else for the most part is typical more of the same Cole. I'll admit, Cole's lyrics are better on here than they were on FHD. FHD lyrically wasn't impressive, he's saying much more on this new album... and not sugar coding it with any 'but's' or 'just playing'.

He's showing minor growth on here, but nothing major like you said. It's like this dude is trying to be so 'REAL' with his music that he doesn't even know how to have fun with it anymore. Still don't know what rating I'll give it, but I think I'm feeling this more than FHD which I think is vastly overrated. This new joint shyts on that album in terms of subject matter, and doesn't have anything as corny as Wet Dreamz on it. People might bring up Folding Clothes, but trust that's going to be a hit and it's a dope grown man/simp record whether you want to admit to it or not. The ladies are going to LOVE that song.

I agree with everything you said. Now check out my music in my sig and lmk what you think of my rough drafts/demos

 

[GreenGhxst]

nikkas rated this lower than TLOP

TLOP is trash, sad

 

[45123]

b-b-but the concept is him rapping from the perspective of his dead friend to his daughter who cares if the music is trash!

You should bow your heads and worship it just based off that!

I'm sorry I get it if you think the album was average but if songs like the title track and Change don't hit you, you dont like hip hop

 

[((ReFleXioN)) EteRNaL]

the album is good but some of yall need to chill.....muthafukkers will say anything to excuse their favorite rappers droppin some weak shyt. talking about "the album is wack because life is wack sometimes!...that's the whole point!....smh....simply dropping an album with a concept doesn't automatically make it better. the quality has to be there as well. it's a dope album and the concept is cool, but the music is not cole's best. that's not a diss, it's just the truth. good kid mad city is an example of a concept album that was masterfully executed and the music was brilliant on top of it. TPAB. disposable arts. I love a great concept album. but this is hip-hop MUSIC. and the music is what we have to judge first and foremost.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

I think y'all taking the "concept" album therory to literally.

All artists take their own stories and experiences, mixed with others to write songs.

It doesn't have to be literally about a single person.

I think the album is about how his thoughts and life experiences parallel those who's life may end up very different than his.

 

[Harry B]

Cole fans relate to shyt like Wet Dreamz (Cole corny ass spells dreams with a z, come on) and act holier than thou like breh aint several classes below even drake and not even on the same planet of kendrick. I like to troll these nikkas in real life tbh. they be so pretentious.

The z's is obviously a tribute to his favorite rapper Pac. As far as Wet Dreamz, why is it weird to relate to wanting to fukk someone when you were like 13. .

 

[OfTheCross]

These Cole stans really have pieced together some asinine theory that this is some The Cool level concept album when this pretty much the same shyt hes been rapping about since he came out what the fukk

The Cool is a concept album?