Fam, I could not be more excited, December is shaping up to be a better month in music than we’ve seen in a long time. Childish Gambino, The Lox, Elaquent and many more artists are dropping albums this month, but honestly, none are more interesting than North Carolina’s J.Cole. Also seemingly none with more polarizing opinions than J.Cole, who announced ‘4 Your Eyez Only’ which is already under scrutiny on one side and blistering praise on the other.
The MC, who went double platinum with no guest features, released two music videos for the tracks “False Prophets (Be Like This)” and “Everybody Dies”. The former is more of a conscious effort where we find Cole talking about the challenges of being famous. However lines like “No doubt you these n*ggas trippin’/Ego in charge of every move, he’s a star/And we can’t look away due to the days that he caught our hearts” was received by some as a subliminal diss to Kanye West, who was hospitalized last month after cancelling his tour.
Honestly, I don’t consider it a diss as much as a commentary on what’s actually happening between both him and his fans. The joint is also coming under some fire because J.Cole rapped over the same “Waves” beat that Joey Bada$$’ did a track with on his 2012 mixtape ‘1999’.
Moving on. “Everybody Dies” is J.Cole on his braggadocio, and if any shots were thrown on these two songs it was definitely on this. “A bunch of words and ain’t sayin’ sh*t I hate these rappers/Especially the amateur 8 week rappers/Lil “whatever” is clearly a diss at the new generation of “mumble” rappers that have really found their own lane this year. Both tracks are fresh and have me ready for the December 9th when ‘4 Your Eyes Only’ drops.
Cole delivered an even bigger treat for fans in his documentary, Eyez which is available exclusively on TIDAL.
