This is a very highly anticipated album and man does it live up to the hype. It's a double album while the first disc has Cole returning to his hometown the Ville after dropping 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The 2nd disc is him 10 years after that and his newer viewpoints. The album starts with "Two Six" which is a banger. Cole displays a lot of clever flows here. "Safety" is rapped from the perspective of one of J. Cole's friend's from the Ville. It might be somewhat controversial as Cole describes someone who is obviously gay and he almost calls him the f word. I will get into more songs ....but honestly this album is so dope I'm thinking of doing a track by track review of this album. I haven't done a T-b-T review in a long time! "Run a Train" features an interesting Future feature on the hook.....it grew on me. Basically this album is very experimental as Cole sings in different ways on some tracks and for the most part it works....Rapping wise tho, he's incredible. On "I Love Her Again" he gives you his take on the Common classic track "I Used to Love Her", where J. Cole raps about his love for hip hop as if she's a woman he's with. On "What If" he raps from the perspective of The Notorious B.I.G. and 2 Pac. He basically gets them to squash their beef before it gets out of control(like it did in real life). This album is love letter to the genre. This is a top tier performance from Cole. The production is varied too. It was pretty damn good. But yeah this album has 24 tracks and I found myself liking just about every song. If this is his last album, he went out on a high note!
Lyrics 25
Beats 23
Depth 25
Tilt 25
Verdict 98