In the over saturated music game its refreshing to hear a different flow from a young buck's perspective who is on the grind and carving his own niche. J Cole's second offering is a break from the same ole same ole but with an asterisk. The reason why I mentioned an asterisk is that dude still throws in the niggerish shit that niggas do (especially rappers/athletes/entertainers) but you can tell he clearly has skills and intelligence to fly over that trap..but hey I'm asking for too much so I should just STFU and enjoy the music right?
The radio friendly joint with Michelle, I mean Miguel, 'Power trip' is alright; "got me up all night, constant drinking and love songs" you know the rest. 'Crooked Smile' is a well balanced attempt to actually say something about the hell black folks dealing with while smiling. But for me I want lyrics and music I can ruminate on, and get my 5k run on...feel me.
'Miss America' goes in on a militant level, and 'Rich Niggaz' speaks on the money trap we're all chasing. One of my favorite tracks is 'Chaining Day' talking bout how pathetic niggaz are in icing out a white image of Jesus. (Its funny the real Jesus wasn't materialistic or white for that matter. He entered Jerusalem on a donkey Matt 21:1-11, how humble and meek was that compared to these idolators violating each other for stones, metals, and paper.) "the way people perceive, money short so this jewelry like a weave meant to deceive."
Then he goes off on some sacrilegious bullsh@t with 'Let Nas down' saying "Pac was like Jesus and Big wrote the bible". Nobody's perfect and this kid aint. He has a nice flow with relevant topics, but needs to get up under from the NY influence that have him infusing occult ideologies and images (his album art) into his music and persona. All I have to say is two words 'The Roc' and you know what I'm talking about.
All and all its a decent album compared to that Arab turned gangsta named French Montana (that's another topic). It's worth listening to; even if you have to skip a few tracks.
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