Nowadays in hip hop, its gotten harder and harder to find the ones that are truly different from your every day average rapper. Money, cars, clothes and hoes are all very nice things (word to T.I.), but at the end of the day people love music that relates to them, along with original, refreshing topics and subject matter. And if there are two rappers in the entire genre that provide this type of music to their listeners, they are Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. Kendrick is arguably one of the top 5 lyricists in the game, and Cole's not too far behind. Putting that together with both of their amazing story-telling abilities, what would we have? An album for the ages. But where is this album that they have been teasing us about for 3 years?
Now when you think of Kendrick and J. Cole as rappers by themselves, you know what you get from each for the most part. Two very good, lyrical rappers with distinctive voices, writing abilities, and mass appeal like Gang Starr. Both are huge deals in the main stream rap music media, reaching gold and platinum selling status on albums like "Good Kid Maad City," "Cole World: The Sideline Story," and "Born Sinner." Not only on albums, but singles for each artist hit gold and platinum status as well. For Cole some of these songs were "Work Out," "Crooked Smile," and "Power Trip." For Kendrick, "Poetic Justice" and "Swimming Pools" have gone gold and platinum, respectively.
Now there isn't much work the two have done together, but from what we have gotten from the two collaborating, it surely didn't disappoint. Cole has produced two songs for Kendrick, the first being a single from his "Section.80" album, "HiiiPoWeR." The second cut is "The Jig Is Up," which if you recall came out shortly after "Good Kid Maad City" dropped in 2012, and includes Kendrick name-dropping Shyne, mainly because of Shyne voicing his opinion on how much he didn't like Kendrick's album publicly. To return the favor, Kendrick has featured on Cole's latest album, "Born Sinner," specifically on the hook of the song "Forbidden Fruit." Just a couple of small teases of work from the two emcees, but are they hints at what's to come?
Fans of both can only hope so, although there hasn't been much talk of the project from either rapper since last year. Kendrick has stated in an interview that the project will have no release date, and will "drop out of the sky" when they see fit. I suppose this method will stop heart attacks everywhere, or at least limit them, but the day I get online and find out a J. Cole/Kendrick Lamar album has dropped? I'll need an inhaler, and I don't even have asthma! But regardless of my medical issues, the fans are ready for a J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar collaborative album. But is hip-hop ready?
The only real reasons for delays of the album (according to Cole) has been that both rappers have had their own projects to release and promote, Kendrick with "GKMC," and Cole with "Born Sinner." Cole has spoken on the album in early 2013, a few months before "Born Sinner" came out. He says the collaboration is "still happening," and speaks on the competitiveness between the two in the studio with writing verses and going back and forth; "it's mad competitive, there's pride to who has a better verse on each song, but we also wanna focus on making better songs." He also had this to say on the challenges of working with another rapper with different ideas on a project: "mentally it's hard because both artists at times can have their minds set on different stuff."
So hopefully the two wordsmiths can come together and make time for something bigger. Just the mere rumor of this possible collaboration has the hip hop world in a frenzy, although not since last year. The expectations for this project would be higher than Wiz Khalifa on a plane, but if they do focus on making quality songs and having their ideas come together as one, I'm sure they'll have no problem living up to them. Quality songs with a message and a great beat behind it are just a couple ways to make a song, but I'm sure if this project did happen we'd be seeing some good old fashion going back and forth with the lyrical, energetic, punch line filled brand of rap that these two can provide just as well as anyone in rap. Now us impatient, not-so-fond-of-games type of fans have to sit and play the waiting game. Hopefully you see the problem in this...
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