Written By Amanda Denett
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the album is FINALLY here! Cole fans have been waiting for this album for more than two years now. J. Cole’s debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, came out this past Tuesday and with it he proves that rap is still alive. In “Rise and Shine” he states, “Some say that rap’s alive, it turns out that I’m the proof.”
Most of the songs on this album (“Lights Please” and “Cole World”) turn out to be material he made years ago, before he even had a record deal with RocNation. Cole says that one of the most difficult procedures for this album was the sequencing. He claims that within the last few days before finalizing the album, he spent about three hours with his mentor (Jay-Z) and his manager (Mark Pitts) sequencing the album. The sequencing caused Cole to drop a few songs because they just didn’t “flow” together. Cole promises the songs that didn’t make it on Cole World: The Sideline Story will be added to his second album, which he claims that he already is working on.
Most of the songs on this album (“Lights Please” and “Cole World”) turn out to be material he made years ago, before he even had a record deal with RocNation. Cole says that one of the most difficult procedures for this album was the sequencing. He claims that within the last few days before finalizing the album, he spent about three hours with his mentor (Jay-Z) and his manager (Mark Pitts) sequencing the album. The sequencing caused Cole to drop a few songs because they just didn’t “flow” together. Cole promises the songs that didn’t make it on Cole World: The Sideline Story will be added to his second album, which he claims that he already is working on.
One element that makes this album so incredible is the production. Shockingly, Cole himself produced 15 out of the 18 tracks on the album. The track that really shows Cole’s talent as a producer is “Rise and Shine”. He says that it took a really long time for it to form: “Over time, over months, that track took a long time, in terms of perfecting it. It’s such a big production. Drums, samples, strings, horns, female vocals, long-ass third verse, live bass that comes in on the third verse, there’s a lot to it.” Cole World: The Sideline Story also has a couple of features. He has Trey Songz on his current single “Can’t Get Enough”, Mr. Drizzy Drake on “In the Morning”, Missy Elliot on “Nobody’s Perfect”,and Jay-Z on “Mr. Nice Watch”.
Another thing that makes J. Cole an amazing artist is his lyrics. As I stated in our previous post about Cole, his lyrics are relatable to the young generation and he isn’t afraid of taking risks. The tracks “Lost Ones” and “Breakdown” will attest to that. In “Lost Ones” he talks about a man getting a girl pregnant and having her consider abortion. Cole says “It’s just dope because it’s talking about a topic that we can all relate to in some kind of way. If you ain’t been through it, you’ve got a friend who’s been through it. I tell the story from both sides. It ain’t just from a male perspective, it’s also from a female perspective. And it’s a third-person perspective that sees both sides. I love that fucking song.”
In “Breakdown” Cole talks about his relationship with his father, his mother, and a girl who is trying to stay loyal to her felon boyfriend. He says, “No way do I want people to think that me and my father have a bad relationship. A lot of people have worse father situations, but guess what? That song is for all of them, too. There’s going to be somebody out there that don’t know their father and that have a more distant relationship than me, with their father, they’re going to grab it and they’re going to appreciate that song so much.”
In “Breakdown” Cole talks about his relationship with his father, his mother, and a girl who is trying to stay loyal to her felon boyfriend. He says, “No way do I want people to think that me and my father have a bad relationship. A lot of people have worse father situations, but guess what? That song is for all of them, too. There’s going to be somebody out there that don’t know their father and that have a more distant relationship than me, with their father, they’re going to grab it and they’re going to appreciate that song so much.”
Cole Word: The Sideline Story is beyond a successful debut album for J. Cole. Cole really spent a lot of his time making an album that people will forever view as a classic. This album has propelled J. Cole to be up there with the best storytellers ever to grace the rap game. If you haven't bought the album yet, then you must be living under a rock.
It's Cole's World now, and we're all just living in it.
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