Another second year, another album drop for the emcee from Fayetteville, North Carolina. I say second year because in the last 4 years, Cole has dropped 3 albums including the recently released KOD, starting with 2014 Forest Hills Drive in 2014, then 4 Your Eyez Only in 2016. It seems as if every project Cole releases has an underlying message that isn't necessarily caught off of the first listen, and if the abbreviations for the album's title mean anything (KOD- Kids On Drugs, King Overdosed, and Killing Our Demons) then the rest of hip hop was in for a rude awakening in the subject matter. But did they awaken rudely? You might be able to say that those who make a certain subgenre of rap were. Did Cole come with that "real shit" again to spark the rap game back into the great state that it was previously? Cole is usually one to boast the MHHGA saying more than most (make hip hop great again). BUT DID COLE COME WITH NO FEATURES?! Let's discuss in my observations of Cole's KOD below.
Tackling Drug Use Like No One In Hip Hop Today Is Doing
J. Cole - Once An Addict
(*Since listening to the Cole album isn't allowed on YouTube without a YouTube Red subscription, I'll have to post the Apple Music song links, so bear with me y'all*)
When so often today drug use is glorified and used to promote a good time among other rappers (most with "lil" in their name), Cole took this concept and flipped it on it's ear. The cover of KOD (mostly the writing at the top, though the cover art serves it's own purpose as well) serves as a disclaimer to listeners diving in to the album; "this album is in no way intended to glorify addiction." While this may seem alarming at first, and it should, the subject matter throughout most songs remains to be the struggle with addiction and drugs through not only Cole's life and career, but hip hop as well. Songs like 'The Cut Off" sound almost exactly like a description of hip hop's youth today, with "kiLL edward" (who is almost certainly Cole himself, used as a representation of today's hip hop landscape) singing the literally carefree hook; "gimme drink, gimme smoke, get me high, let me float, I'm a cloud, coming down, put me down, gentle now, gimme drink, gimme dope, bottom line, I can't cope, if I die, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." The intimately personal "Once An Addict (Interlude)" details Cole growing up with addiction in the household with his mother's battle with alcoholism, and Cole's fear for letting his mother know his real thoughts on the matter. If an intervention could be put into song form, then "Once An Addict" is that cry for help for Cole's mother's case. He uses songs throughout KOD not to glorify drug and alcohol addiction, but to shed a light on the matters and just maybe; see what it's like to live a day in the shoes of an addict.
Discussing The Obsessions Of Today's Hip Hop Youth
ATM - J. Cole
While Cole's album comes with most of the qualities that the average Cole album would, it's unique in the aspect that Cole approaches the subject matter almost as a parody. On songs like "ATM" and "Motiv8", Cole steals the stapled "Migos flow" (for lack of a better term, also considering that's what it's become known as today) and uses it almost as research to set the example for what hip hop's standards are for music today. "Photograph" is comical in the idea that it's subject matter is actually true, while the repetitive "motivate" hook on the song with the same title ("Motiv8") almost seems to make a mockery of other hooks made by other rappers made today, using background adlibs to stress the "get money" part of the equation, plus the bridge's lyrics (or, "post" bridge, since it's right after the hook) can be interpreted as shots at today's landscape as well; "too many times, I swallowed my pride, I'm crackin' a smile, I'm dying inside, my demons are close, I'm tryin' to hide, I'm poppin' a pill, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feeling alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm feelin alive, I'm...". It's as if Cole was so intrigued by today's hip hop landscape and what the hotter artists discussed in their lyrics that he is using it as either "motivation" to help the record sell, or he was using it as research; a wake up call to show other rappers what they are sounding like, and I don't believe Cole has ever cared about selling records.
Political Views & Ideas That Could Push The Agenda
Window Pain (Outro) - J. Cole
Now from the looks of social media and people's opinions about Cole, nobody wants to hear Cole get political, but Cole has never shied away from doing so while speaking his mind and getting things off of his chest. Discussions of the mass shootings that have plagued the U.S. ("Window Pain [Outro]"), as well as addiction and what it does to people throughout the entire album ("The Cut Off", "Once An Addict", "FRIENDS", etc.) are the kinds of things that keep Cole at the top of the list of relevancy, and top of the list of rappers who fight for what is right; this is why everything Cole drops is a breath of fresh air whilst the rest of hip hop (most of the music getting promoted anyways) is struggling to keep it's head above alcoholic and promethazine filled waters. Now to step away from the "preachy" aspect of the music; though the themes and messages throughout can be depressing and dark, Cole's album is delightfully fresh in that it presents (in a way) solutions to the problems that it also brings to the table with just as much, if not more force. In every raw song's problem also lies it's solution, or at least, steps towards those solutions, and though the road looks bleak for some going ahead, there is still hope towards Killing Our Demons, with those Kids On Drugs. Unless, of course, the King Overdosed, then... we might just be doomed.
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