Album Review: Cole World: The Sideline Story
Hip Hop heads know J.Cole as the lyrical maestro with a fire in his lungs and a story on his tongue. He’s the kid (24) who seemingly came out of nowhere (Fayetteville, N.C.) to grab the attention of Jay-Z, earn a college degree, and gain the respect of the hip-hop community all at once (we’re assuming momma is proud). What started as a dream for a young man with a love for the game of basketball and an ability to understand and articulate the world around him, has evolved into the beginning of a new era in Hip-Hop. Cole World: Sideline Story accomplishes something that has the haters incredulous and the believers rejoicing. Bridging the daunting gap between conscious, lyrically intricate rap and mainstream appeal, Cole’s debut does what few other rap albums have done over the past decade: make inspired art marketable. Guided by the business savvy (and name) of Jay Z, as well as the success and brilliance of his mixtape Friday Night Lights (2010), Cole has gone from underground and respected to mainstream and celebrated in one year.
What makes Cole’s first studio album successful is its authenticity. Cole, also a producer, has crafted most of his own beats since dropping The Come Up, his first mixtape, in 2007. Now with Roc Nation, one might expect Cole to turn to the list of accomplished producers on board with him. He doesn’t. Cole, like he’s done thus far in his brief career, handles the production on his debut, assuring his fans the same sound that gained their attention and devotion early on. This is both positive and negative. On the one hand, Cole’s piano and drum driven beats compliment the struggles he voices in his lyrics with simplistic gratitude. On the other, they’re not as heavy or convincing as one might expect on a studio album put out by one of Jay-Z’s signees. Although this is very much a concept album, in which Cole meshes life’s conflicts with life’s celebrations, he fails to venture (successfully) beyond his comfort zone behind the boards. But J.Cole is a lyricist first and foremost. Although the beats aren’t strong enough to grab your attention, especially in a genre replete with artists who’ve made a career off great production alone, Cole’s flow, cadence, and lyrics will hook you by the ears and drag you in for some storytelling.
Following a brief, but mesmerizing intro where Cole talks, and raps, over a piano melody, the album comes to life with Dollar and Dream III, the third installment in a song series that dates back to The Come Up, in which Cole introduces himself to those who are unfamiliar, and reintroduces his longtime fans to the flow and energy they’ve been waiting patiently for. Here, Cole not only talks about where he comes from, where he’s going, and how he’s living, but he also hits us with one of his better beats. When the track breaks down at 2:57 and Cole raps: “Cole is what you know me as, but we far from homies, if you know my momma you know me, if you don’t well then I’m sorry, you should get to know Kay, man she been working too hard, I should send her a bouquet,” the entire song takes off, and suddenly we’re progressing into a 16-track rap display consisting of inspired lyrics with relatable content and emotional appeal. Even on Can’t Get Enough, which was released months back as one of the album’s two singles (the other being Work Out, which only made it as a bonus track here), and features Trey Songz on the hook, Cole proves he can make the radio-ready, head nodding, larger-than-life rap joint while maintaining his inspired and soulful sound.
After Lights Please, the song that secured Cole a record deal with Jay-Z, he brings back the mellow piano keys for an Interlude where he talks about getting arrested the same day he found out he’d been signed. This track flows seamlessly into Sideline Story where Cole raps about being on the sidelines the past four years, waiting his time to blow up and take that leap into the limelight. Here, Cole is at the top of his game production-wise and lyrically, and suddenly, as a listener, you feel as if he’s going to gain momentum and glide through the rest of the album with no blemishes…
But, as with most things that seem too good to be true, there’s always that moment to remind us that nobody and nothing is perfect. For J.Cole and his fans, this moment arrives with Mr. Nice Watch: a dub step, electronic inflamed attempt at trying something different that backfires on the young MC. One moment we’re six tracks into a flawless manuscript with a consistent direction. The next we’re bombarded with a fuzzy mishap where Cole flips his cadence to sound mainstream. Something about Cole’s modest braggadocio lacks endearment here and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album’s stability. Also, someone please tell Jay-Z to stop rapping….immediately. Unfortunately, Cole backs this track with the almost equally uninspiring and equally unimpressive Cole World. There’s only so many times young Jermaine can use his last name as a pun (Cole world, Cole life, Cole blooded), and only so many times I can hear him rap “staring at me” with “very happy” before I’m skipping this attempt.
No worries though, he’s right back on his game with the simple, but empowering In The Morning, which features a manageable verse from Drake and will be familiar to all Cole fans, as this track was also included on his previous mixtape Friday Night Lights. Although he turns to an older track here to regain his focus, we’re not complaining, because the next (and final) six tracks: Lost Ones, Nobody’s Perfect, Never Told, Rise and Shine, God’s Gift, and Breakdown, could stand on their own as an album. No filler, no bullshit, just straight heart and soul to round out and solidify Cole’s debut. Lost Ones discusses the pain of dealing with abortion as a young couple. Nobody’s Perfect employs Missy Elliot for the surprise feature of the year, as she delivers a beautiful hook/chorus combination, while Cole discusses the types of women he’s encountered. Never Told touches on cheating, heartbreak, and other things confronting a couple trying to raise a child while also practicing infidelity. Rise and Shine might be the best rap song of the year, enough said. God’s Gift could make a stray dog obedient, an old man young again, and make Mr. Perfect reverse his opinion on rap, all within the first 15 seconds of it playing. Breakdown provides, pure, unabashed, unrestrained narration about the life and culture existing behind and within, not only J.Cole himself, but the entire Hip Hop community.
Our Word: On Sideline Story (track 6), Cole spits, “We’ve all got angels, we’ve all got demons,” which is a fitting conclusion coming from a man with a flow so mean it sits on your left shoulder and bangs menacingly against your eardrum, while the expositions found within his lyrics tap on your right shoulder to remind you that there’s an actual message here. On his debut, Cole is the cause and the reaction; the cognition and the recognition; the image and the reciprocation. Rarely do rappers demonstrate such artistic skill and creative control on an album released through a major record label. Cole World: Sideline Story redefines what is expected from the future of Hip Hop. We’re entering an age where lyricism is main-stream once more, and Cole is one of the artists responsible for this transition. This album isn’t perfect, as there are missteps, inconsistencies, and questionable track arrangements. A song that was left off the final track-list and made it only as a bonus track for certain editions, is Nothing Lasts Forever: one of the better breakup songs put out in recent memory. Go download it, listen to it, and then think the same thing I did: “this should be on the album; Mr. Nice Watch should be off.” But as Cole reminds us, nobody’s perfect, regardless of how close to perfection they really are.
4.5/5
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