By Paul Holtz<\/p>\n
The now common \u2018Parental Advisory: Explicit Content\u2019 warning is on the front of almost all hip-hop albums but J. Cole has a far more precise disclaimer for his listeners on the cover of his latest record: \u201cThis album is in no way intended to glorify addiction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n KOD<\/span><\/i> \u2013 the North Carolina rapper\u2019s fifth studio album \u2013 tackles drugs, demons and addiction for the majority of its 12 tracks, with Cole seemingly keen to caution his fans, other rappers and society at large about this set of topics. He\u2019s already delivered three separate definitions for its acronymic title \u2013 Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed, Kill Our Demons.<\/span><\/p>\n The new album, like his former magnum opus, <\/span>2014 Forest Hills Drive<\/span><\/i>, is absent of other artists (save kiLL edward, a mysterious guest whose voice, when sped up, sounds like J. Cole\u2019s), and Cole produced much of it himself. \u201cATM\u201d and the title track are potent reminders of the way he can rip up a song with his flow alone. Cole is friends with rapper Kendrick Lamar, and <\/span>KOD<\/span><\/i>, with its bare bones production, snare-drum flows, and focus on greed and pain, seems like a pale shadow of Pulitzer Prize winning <\/span>DAMN<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n On “Photograph,” he plays the new-wave online lover, going after after social media profiles. “Fell in love through photograph, I don’t even know your name\/Wonder if you follow back, I hope to see you one day,” he raps in a lustful mumble over a sped-up, bluesy loop. “Love today’s gone digital, and it’s messing with my health.” He talks about being money hungry on the minimalist “Motiv8,” and to public infidelities on “Kevin’s Heart.” \u201cMy phone be blowing up\/Temptations on my line\/I stare at the screen a while before I press decline,\u201d he speaks over an sultry arrangement.<\/span><\/p>\n If there’s any optimism in KOD, it’s fleeting but meaningful. “Meditate, don’t medicate,” he riffs in a hypnotic tone over the funky drummer rhythm and muted organ fills of “Friends.” Yet every moment of joy is fraught with complications. While technically an uplifting ending to the album, “Window Pain (Outro)” is riven with sweet-and-sour sentiments: “All I want to do is see my Granny on the other side\/All I want to do is kill the man that made my mama cry.” But it has hard hitting lyrics which shows that Cole has been better in specific lyrics rather than the overall rap. <\/span><\/p>\n Cole intersperses these moments of relief with riffs on the darkside of being famous \u2013 the former \u201cfriends\u201d that try to use him for financial gain (“The Cut Off”), the way his swelling tax dollars are used by the government for the wrong reasons (“BRACKETS”). These seem too self centered, making his audience not relate to the feelings or ideas he is preaching about.<\/span><\/p>\n The most personal song on <\/span>KOD<\/span><\/i> is about his mother, Kay, and it combines the emotions and vividity of the album\u2019s standout tracks with the self righteousness of its worst. On \u201cOnce an Addict (Interlude),\u201d Cole recalls his mom drinking too much after his stepfather had an affair and child with another woman\u2014going as far to reference the Marvin Gaye songs she was listening to at the moments\u2014as he guilts over his own cold reaction (\u201cWhy she always using me for a crutch?\u201d). But while those elements seem to make the song compelling, Cole shows an astonishing lack of empathy for his mother\u2019s pain, even with hindsight, and is ruined by clumsy lines (\u201cMaybe things get better with time, I heard it heals\u201d). Listeners are asked to ponder over the rapper\u2019s pain, rather than his mother\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Paul Holtz The now common \u2018Parental Advisory: Explicit Content\u2019 warning is on the front of almost all hip-hop albums but J. Cole has a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":1842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/sixmau-j-cole-1524081746-640x634.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99Jai-tr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1839,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2017-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}