The problem with the J Cole album is that he's just not THAT interesting of an emcee to make it work. If you gave a great emcee, or even a good emcee that same material it would have been a really great album.
j. cole was lucky and benefited from getting hype in a period (around 08-10) where rap was sort of in a lull, just prior to a slew of actually good and interesting rappers coming out.
Disagree with both of these statements. J Cole IS a great emcee. When he's on, he has great flow, can pump out some great lyrics, and has good beat selection. Born Sinner, Friday Night Lights, Warm Up, Forest Hills Drive are all great projects, no matter what period of time you are talking. When you are talking about consistent quality of material, he is up there with the best of em. In fact, I consider him one of the best around.
The guy can flat out rap, no question about that. This time he tried was too hard to "deep" or whatever you wanna call it, and it didn't come out right. Even after that, he produced some really ****ing good tracks on this album. Collectively, it was a fail though due to some of the **** poor tracks.
Just finished listening to Vice City by Anonymuz, verdict - SOLID. The beats are really ****ing good, and he mostly does a good job of delivering over them. The guy can spit, no doubt, but his flow seemed kinda one dimensional to me on this album. Enjoyed it.