Music: The Official Hip-Hop Thread: Part VIX

Status
Not open for further replies.

Five Alarm Fire

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jun 17, 2009
10,122
6,119
This J. Cole album is something special.

I didn't realise until the third listen through that he was recollecting stories from his slain friend's life, and only drawing parallels to his. While Kendrick pursued a similar concept in GKMC, this does an equally good job of expressing the emotions and themes of fatherhood, fear of death, and consequences from a life of crime. The title track is jaw-dropping. I will definitely be binge-listening to this album for a while.
 

void

Registered User
Jan 5, 2006
27,459
1,685
The new J Cole gets a big thumbs down from me. One of the weaker hip-hop albums I've listened to this year.
 

Five Alarm Fire

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jun 17, 2009
10,122
6,119
The new J Cole gets a big thumbs down from me. One of the weaker hip-hop albums I've listened to this year.

Getting through the new J Cole was a chore. Still waiting on Soul to hit Canadian Spotify lol

The album appears to be pretty polarising online at the moment, and I get it. It's not uptempo, the production is similar on many songs and I can see why someone would find it boring. It's very much a concept album, and will resonate differently with other people.
 

Clown Fiesta

Registered User
Aug 15, 2005
14,012
331
Montana
After he dropped "Everybody Dies" and it was straight fire I thought his album was going to be more of the same and in J. Cole fashion he just does whatever the **** he wants lol. It's good, but I was hoping for more of what we got last week to be honest.
 

KapG

Registered User
Dec 2, 2008
10,608
1,743
Toronto
Hearing good things about the ab soul album. Will have to check it out


Still liking that j cole album though after 3 play throughs
 

Chandrashekhar Limit

From the runaway slave to a modern day king.
Apr 2, 2009
18,140
249
Milky Way
After Flase Prophets and Everybody Dies I expected an album of epic proportions from Cole. Gotta say I'm disappointed. It's got 5 really good songs, and 4 horrid ones. For an album with 10 songs, that's a pretty bad ratio.

I think what saves it to an extent is just the fact that Cole killed the good ones. Bells, Immortal, Change are near the top of my cole list.

I wish he put in false prophets and everybody dies in there in place of folding clothes and she's mine pt1.

Haven't had a chance to listen to souls album.

Heard half of Hamilton, Charles and it was pretty solid.
 

Alex Jones

BIG BOWL 'A CHILI!!
Jun 8, 2009
33,488
5,940
Conspiratron 9000
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.
 

Alex Jones

BIG BOWL 'A CHILI!!
Jun 8, 2009
33,488
5,940
Conspiratron 9000
This J. Cole album is something special.

I didn't realise until the third listen through that he was recollecting stories from his slain friend's life, and only drawing parallels to his. While Kendrick pursued a similar concept in GKMC, this does an equally good job of expressing the emotions and themes of fatherhood, fear of death, and consequences from a life of crime. The title track is jaw-dropping. I will definitely be binge-listening to this album for a while.
Musically it's only.....okay. The strength of the album is in it's concept. This is a strength in ways, but also a weakness once the ideas start getting a bit thin.
 

Five Alarm Fire

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Jun 17, 2009
10,122
6,119
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.

Agree with this. One of my frustrations with J Cole is that he has the right intentions but is limited lyrically. To me, he matured a lot in this area on this album. He cut back on the corny lines (except for Folding Clothes, but I think that's what he was going for), and put together some better verses. He's always been a good storyteller, and he exemplifies it in Changes/4YEO. There's nothing mind-blowing lyrically that you'd expect from a Kendrick, however.

Musically it's only.....okay. The strength of the album is in it's concept. This is a strength in ways, but also a weakness once the ideas start getting a bit thin.

Musically, it's appropriate given what he's going for. He left the two harder hitting tracks as singles for that reason. I've heard the production be compared to elevator music a lot (hilarious), but the softer, slower beat selection works. It's more in line with what original J. Cole did, before the label started to get into his head about making more energetic music.

My opinion on the album has become a bit more conservative from my initial impression, but I still think it's the best project he's put out.
 

void

Registered User
Jan 5, 2006
27,459
1,685
The new Ab-Soul is so ****ing good. Wow.

You can listen to the whole album below:


edit: Too many good tracks to actually pick my favorite one.
 
Last edited:

PullHard

Jul 18, 2007
28,377
2,452
I find it interesting to see some negativity about J Cole online in the last week or so

For a long time I thought I was the only one not understanding the hype

He is fine but I find him mostly boring, I cannot understand the love he gets
 

left hand path

Registered User
Oct 29, 2016
109
4
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.
 

left hand path

Registered User
Oct 29, 2016
109
4
on the topic of ab soul, it's perplexing that someone who blurts out cringeworthy struggle bars as consistently as him is considered a great mc
 

Chandrashekhar Limit

From the runaway slave to a modern day king.
Apr 2, 2009
18,140
249
Milky Way
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.
 

void

Registered User
Jan 5, 2006
27,459
1,685
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.

I second this. Very good album.
 

M.C.G. 31

Damn, he brave!
Oct 6, 2008
96,268
18,936
Ottawa
Kendrick posted a video on Facebook - 12.16.16 "Next Stop Brooklyn..."

pls don't tease me right now Kendrick

if it's just an ad for American Express I will be sad
 

Chandrashekhar Limit

From the runaway slave to a modern day king.
Apr 2, 2009
18,140
249
Milky Way
Man, this has been a great year for hip hop. So much quality material came out :) I'm trying to play catchup now and it's a ****ing treat.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->