Alright, so here I am for the last
time on this blog with one of those big ass assignments that account for what
seems like an ungodly amount of my final grade (a whole 10%, that shit is a
pretty decent chunk. Anyway, I am here to talk about J. Cole’s 2014 Forest
Hills Drive and how it is related to the genre and its history, the culture it
is set in, the ideology behind it by giving a general review of the album. This
will be so much fun that this should be illegal.
Okay, well, now I guess I need to
explain the super cool and spunky way I found my way to this album. But I am
afraid I am only here to disappoint you, just like I have with every other girl
I was trying to get a good grade on. Honestly, I knew that this album came out
on vinyl and it was at the record shop so I took that as a sign that I needed
to do this album for this blog post. But I did learn that this album is still
kind of stupidly fucking expensive. Like it was $40 there, that is expensive
for an album that is almost 3 years old. And can we please talk about the fact
that this album is almost 3 years old? The idea of that is crazy to me, I am
not quite sure why, but this album still feels new and up to date, EVEN with J.
Cole’s newest album 4 Your Eyez Only released late 2016.
So how am I going to tell you all
the shit I have to, while reaching word count? Good question. There will be a
track by track, but first yall should know about J. Cole and all the shit he
does. J. Cole grew up in North Carolina and had a rough childhood, as you’ll
see in the track by track, but he ended up going to St. Johns University and
graduated before he pursued his music career. Before this album, J. Cole had
released 2 other albums, both generally successful. At the time of the making
of this album, rap music was not that different to today’s rap, it included
heavy bass with guitars and synths, generally. Lyrics were not as thought out
as J. Cole’s are, but some artists did have great lyrics. These are just
generalities that I apply to 2010s rap, but J. Cole was here to change the
game.
So here comes the track by track,
but I’m going to do things a little bit differently. Usually, track by track
reviews talk about each song by itself with little to no connection to other
songs of the album. Well, I also need to cover the holistic album review as
well in this blog, so I am going to not only talk about each song, but I will
enter connections to other songs in the album not only to cover my ass, but
also because this album’s songs interplay with each other and I think it would
be stupid to not talk about those connections.
1. Intro
This track is, as the name
obviously states, a precursor to this entire album. There isn’t much to talk
about with this song’s lyrics as they are super repetitive and lack any kind of
significance. With lines like “Do you wanna be happy? Do you wanna be free?”
this songs leaves me with something to be desired, I really wish J. Cole had
leaned in to the intro of this album with something that makes me actually
think about it. With that said, I think the instruments and music behind him
perfectly set up the album, with a sweet, smooth jazz piano flowing through
this song, it sets up this peaceful idea that J. Cole interacts with through
the entire album. But specifically in this song, the music behind the lyrics
are definitely more interesting, especially because of the jazz usage, which is
an interplay that hadn’t really been heavily played with before this album.
Before you jump on me for saying that, let me refrain, I do not know of any
other album that is labelled as rap that was as successful as this album that
also had such a heavy jazz influence.
2. January 28th
I’m not
quite sure how to approach this song, there are a ton of things that need to be
said about it. First of all, January 28th is J. Cole’s birthday and
this song is a kind of reflection on his life and what he has struggled with. I
think this song a great opportunity to talk about the ideology Cole describes
through the whole album. With lines like, “I'm talkin' 'bout that mind state
that keep a black nigga dumb / Keep a black nigga dyin' by a black nigga gun”
J. Cole is calling out the ideology of modern times that he is claiming keeps
black people away from success. J. Cole talks about the idea that he only sees
black people in a good light when it is about either sports or music and how
there are not many morally good black people being portrayed in movies or any
form of media. With this being the first mention of the race problem in this
album, it can sometimes be passed over, but the repetitions throughout the
album makes these calls to action even louder.
3. Wet Dreamz
So, this
song is a complete switch from what we had before this. This song takes us back
to form of rap with less substance but is easy to listen to and is actually funny
and entertaining. J. Cole tells us how he lost his virginity in this song. When
you just listen to this song by itself, it seem pretty good and is just normal
substance for a lot of rap music. But when you attach it to the song before, I
think it is actually becomes a comment on black culture and how other people
view it. With January 28th, we see a side of the culture that many people
don’t see as much with calls for change and equality and peace, where as in
this song we see a song all about sex, similar to a lot of other material from
rap. J. Cole is, at least from where I’m standing, is trying to show the world
that there are many levels to the black culture that we don’t understand.
4. ’03 Adolescence
This song
is similar to Wet Dreamz because it talks about J. Cole growing up and the
things he had and wanted and dealt with. This song also describes black culture
in the sense that I understand some of it. But this time, J. Cole also talks
about the interaction of white and black kids and what they think of white kids
being rich and dumb. J. Cole also talks about his education and how that was an
instrumental part to his success when he had the chance to just sell drugs
instead and immediately get money where he actually had to wait. This song is
kind of a success story for Cole and black culture as well.
5. A Tale of 2 Citiez
Now this
song is the complete white vs. black and rich vs. poor. This song describes two
cities that are completely different and how they interact through theft and
fighting. Most importantly to me, this is the first time J. Cole brings up the
police in this album which is the big culture part of the blog. I think this
song has a lot to talk about, but I can’t touch on it all, but I consider this
to be like January 28th in the sense that it has a ton of social
commentary on black lives and how they want to live.
6. Fire Squad
I consider
Fire Squad to be the outlier in this album, it is all about dropping names and
all that stuff that all the rappers do. But I mean, every great album has to
have a song that’s the least good right?
7. St. Tropez
St. Tropez
brings the focus back to J. Cole and how he felt about his career and what he
wanted. This song is a lot less jazzy and back to the simple drum beat with
some synth in there too. The biggest thing about this song is the lyrics and
how J. Cole talks about his doubts and fears, which is something that you don’t
hear from other rappers. You might be asking yourself, “What does this have to
do with the genre, culture, or ideology?” Well, talking about coming up short
is not something discussed in the rap genre, so J. Cole is bringing a level of
honesty to his music that wasn’t there before.
8. G. O. M. D.
Okay, so
this song is ALMOST just like Fire Squad in the sense that it is all that
rapper trash about being the best and getting all the women and the money and
all that bullshit that fills lines. Don’t get me wrong, the beat and the hook
of this song are legendary and I love every second of this song, but there aint
much to talk about. This comes with one huge but. I think the last verse of
this song redeems the rest of the song with its knowledge being dropped. With
the line “Why every rich black nigga gotta be famous/Why every broke black
nigga gotta be brainless/That's a stereotype” This is yet again J. Cole talking
about the ideology of black people and racism. J. Cole is saying that black
people cannot just be normal, you can’t have a poor black man that is smart or
useful, nor can any wealthy black person just be wealthy without it being because
they are black. J. Cole is talking about how racism has changed to the idea
that black people do everything because they are black, not because they are
just people.
9. No Role Modelz
This song
is again about how J. Cole grew up. There’s some things I need to say about
this song, it bumps and is one of J. Cole’s most popular songs and it deserves
that. There are some really cool social commentary lines in this song like “I
came fast like 911 in white neighborhoods” which is something I totally didn’t even
think about before listening to this song. It didn’t even occur to me, a white suburban
boy, that police might come at different speeds in different places. I think
that is the whole point of music and J. Cole’s music, to educate and entertain.
Both of which were satisfied to me through this song.
10. Hello
Okay, so
this song is so damn cool, like what the hell. This is completely different
than the rest of the album. This has a nice piano with classical instruments
that have a focus that they haven’t in the genre before, especially at the end
of the song with all of the cellos and cool instruments. J. Cole just talks
over the track about a lost love, which is both so J. Cole and so not J. Cole.
He doesn’t talk about race or police in this song and it has this really cool
almost gospel vibe to it that I really dig.
11. Apparently
This song
start off with J. Cole singing with a lot of layering of other vocals backing
him up. This time, J. Cole is reminiscing on his life and mainly his mom and
girlfriend. This song is basically a thank you to his mom and a promise to his
girl. Later on in the song, it goes back to the rapper bragging about himself
again, but the overall message is pretty cool and I respect it.
12. Love Yourz
The intro
to this song is so chill and original, I like the use of instruments and
layering of J. Cole’s voice. This song basically ties the entire album together
and actually goes and talks about the general idea of each song before it. This
is something that I didn’t even notice until I started writing this and was
listening to this song and I saw each of the previous songs get some kind of
attention, which I think is fucking awesome. He also talks about how money doesn’t
solve all problems like he thought it did when he was younger. “But where does
this tie in to anything?” you might be asking yourself. Well, in this song J.
Cole talks about real life struggles including financial problems, alcoholism,
relationship problems and a lot more. But the thing that is really cool is that
J. Cole brought in the entire philosophy utilitarianism into his album, with or
without his knowledge. The lyrics, “It's beauty in the struggle” brings in the
philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and his idea of pain and pleasure. This is really
interesting because the ideas of utilitarianism is basically the idea that the
welfare of the greatest number is better than the welfare of one person. I find
this interesting because when you apply utilitarianism to this album,
everything kind of clicks and some choices seem more right than they did
before. “Like what? You won’t get points for generalities like that” is what I know
one of you is thinking. So, for example, in “Hello” J. Cole is deciding whether
or not go back to his girlfriend that he loves and her two kids she had with
another guy. Well he decides not to because he doesn’t want to be the
stepfather of those children when he cannot provide for himself yet. Because he
cannot provide, according to utilitarianism, he should not go back because it
would not benefit the larger group, being the two kids. So there, that is how utilitarianism
is in this album.
13. Note to Self
This is a
long ass song. 15 minutes. There is no way in hell that I can cover everything
J. Cole says in his speech, he just covers so much. But this is actually his
appreciation for specific people that helped with the album. Interestingly,
they didn’t have enough time to include all of these shout outs on paper
because they were releasing this album in 2014 and it was released in late December,
so this is actually really cool. He talks about a lot of stuff but I think the
important part is he talks about the Ferguson riots, which I think really cool
because it is a real life situation that J. Cole touched on throughout the
album.
Okay, so overall, if you picked up
it yet, I love this album and I think it was really cool to be able to break
this album apart and really look at everything. Well, I think I got everything
covered that I was required to and I definitely hit word count so hell yes. I
did a track by track with holistic chunks, check. I talked about the genre and
how this album agreed with and conflicted with the general genre, check. I
talked about black culture and how this album reflected it, check. I talked
about the recording process and the how the time constraints created an
entirely new song, check. I talked about how the album can be taken as a
reflection of utilitarianism, check. I did a lot of shit for this blog post, I hope
yall like it.
I won’t, but I might as well say it anyway
See you on the flipside
No comments:
Post a Comment