New Rap Albums a Hit and a Miss

J. Cole’s ‘Kids on Drugs’ disappoints

New Rap Albums a Hit and a Miss

Daniel Grajeda

J. Cole’s new album “Kids on Drugs,” or “King Over Dose,” is a disappointment. Much like his last album, he doesn’t achieve his full potential.

Although lyrically J. Cole is far superior to other rappers, it as if he is overly confident in his skills, and expects everyone to appreciate his work because he has built a name for himself.

Yet every new album he comes out with seems to fall short of expectations. At the same time, the album isn’t a total loss as it effectively plays out an emotional story of a life of drugs and loss.

Jermaine Lamarr Cole, better known as J. Cole, first started popping up in early 2007 with his debut album “The Come Up.” By 2009, Cole was signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label.

J. Cole’s family life changed drastically after he left to college: his step-father became abusive, and after the divorce, Cole’s mother became addicted to crack. These events inspire most of the music he writes.

By 2014, Cole’s third album, “Forest Hills Drive,” reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200. Later in 2016, he released his short album “4 Your Eyez Only” and reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200. After the release of this album, Cole went dark until his latest album release.

“K.O.D” has been a great disappointment compared to some of his previous albums. In Cole’s new album he has a split personality that he named “kiLL edward” who sings on some tracks. The problem with this split personality is that kiLL edward is not a good singer and uses auto-tune on his voice to change it, and it comes out sounding horrible.

For instance, the song “The Cut Off” featuring kiLL edward is emotionless and repetitive. In a monotonous way he says “Gimme drink, gimme smoke, Get me high, let me float, I’m a cloud, comin’ down, Put me down, gentle now, Gimme drink, gimme dope, Bottom line, I can’t cope, If I die, I don’t know.” The way it is sung with a terrifying voice makes the song worse, not allowing the listener to enjoy it and instead having the opposite effect: making listeners want to skip it.

In “Motiv8” he starts the song with a lazy attitude and the refrain is just “Too many times I swallowed my pride, get money, I’m crackin’ a smile, I’m dyin’ inside, my demons are close, I’m tryin’ to hide, I’m poppin’ a pill, I’m feelin’ alive, I’m feelin’ alive.”

The horrible lazy monotonous tone of his delivery makes listeners want to skip over the track.

Although most of the songs are bad, the album does provide some listenable tracks such as “ATM,” “Kevin’s Heart,” “Once an Addict,” “Window Pain,” and “1985.” These songs take listeners back to J. Cole’s better days.

The song’s not only provide a sick beat, but also go back to his lyrical genius. Basing these off his experiences, he shows he has more potential than he has shown in this album.

Overall, the quality of J. Cole’s music has gone down, but hopefully he doesn’t stay this way because it would be a waste of potential. If he were to put more effort into his songs and go back to the good old days, he could go back to being one of the best artists in this new rap generation.