J. Cole's debut album "Cole World: The Sideline Story" is the second best Hip-Hop album of 2011 (and there haven't been a lot of HIP-HOP albums put out lately...some urban/rap albums, but not Hip-Hop). The best album of course was Watch The Throne.
Listening to the album, you would never know that this was Cole's debut album. I don't know to explain it, but newer rappers sometimes sound bright-eyed and excited when they rap. It's like they're trying too hard to sound good. For example, listen to DJ Unk's Walk It Out Remix. When Unk started rapping, you could tell that he was happy and excited about the success of the song (which isn't a bad thing), but when Andre 3000 spit his verse, it sounded like we was just chillin' and vibin' out cause it's nothin' to him. A lot of veteran rappers have that, "I've been doin' this for a minute so what I gotta prove? I can just relax on the track" type sound when they rap. You notice it more when they're featured on a new artists' song, which contrasts the rookie rapper's over zealous flow.
I said all of that just to say that J. Cole sounds almost like a veteran rapper. The choices he made for his album showed a different level of maturity than most new rappers. And I mean new as in having only one album.
One decision he made was to only have 4 features on the album. Generally, rappers like to have a lot of guest features on their album. Depending on the artist, it's to add desire for the record because of who's on the album, or because the artist isn't good enough to do an entire song or album themselves...at least that's how I feel. On the other side of things, sometimes newer artists can't get a lot of features either because they can't afford the guests or they're not drawing enough credibility to their work for another artist to get on.
However in this case, J. Cole had a big enough following to get "big name" features. And I wouldn't be surprised if he could afford a couple artists here or there, especially through the label. But he chose not to. Cole did the album basically himself. Every verse on the album was spat by him except the verse by Jay-Z on Mr. Nice Watch & Drake on In The Morning. We first heard In The Morning on Cole's award winning mixtape Friday Night Lights. It was easily the most popular song on the mixtape with the masses so there's no surprise that it made it to the album. And the verse by Jay was almost a given. I mean Jay-Z is J. Cole's boss, mentor, and he's just Jay-Z. I mean NOBODY in their right mind turns down a Jay-Z verse. I'm just sayin', whether you ask Jay or especially if the offers, you don't turn it down. So I feel like those two verse features were totally acceptable, weren't overkill, and didn't take away from his talent. He also featured Trey Songz on the hook of his lead single Can't Get Enough. I feel like this was a smart choice because he needed a radio single that wouldn't detract from his style of music and Trey Songz has enough mainstream appeal to draw more fans in without being too cliche or seeming desperate by bringing someone in like a Chris Brown or Justin Beiber. The only other feature was Missy Elliot on his song Nobody's Perfect. She sang the hook perfectly. Their chemistry was perfect. It's true that Nobody's Perfect, but that song almost is.
Another genius decision that J. Cole made, and possibly the best choice he made was to basically produce the album himself, with No I.D. It just gives the album a connected and congealed feel. It made every song seem together while still being it's own song. The sign of a great, or classic album is the ability to listen to the album straight through without skipping any songs. You can do that with this album. Sometimes using only one or two producers can hinder the album by giving it a monotone feel (Thank Me Later). At the same time, using a different producer for every other song makes the album disjointed. It might give you seven or eight good songs, but it also can give you a cluttered album. The combination of J. Cole & No I.D. is just awesome. Although production isn't as epic or complex as Watch the Throne's, it gives a more classic hip-hop type vibe. They did an excellent job of giving each song it's own identity without giving any polar opposite dynamics in the beats like other albums do sometimes.
And just in case you didn't know, J. Cole is a lyrical BEAST! Subject matter, he's comparable to Nas. Wordplay, he's comparable to Lupe Fiasco. This guy is just good. I honestly don't know how to describe or explain to you that Cole is gonna be a problem for these other rappers in a couple years. I've been tryin' to tell people he's like the LeBron James of the rap game because of the potential that he has. He possibly could be mentioned with the greats in the future if he progresses.
That's basically all I can say right now about the album. I know the review is kind of late...but better late than never. The album is awesome. Easily a 4/5...to me.
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