Jermaine Cole, easily one of the best rappers of our generation. He’s amongst Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Jay Z and that’s just not up for debate. His rap style has evolved over the years, you can see his inherit growth as an individual in his lyrics. He has moved past the money chains and girls and began a quest to educate his community. Of course everyone isn’t on his wave, he doesn’t make “club bangers,” J Cole is far from a mumble rapper. He wants us to hear his message, feel empowered, and go out into the world and do better. With that being said it might be safe to say J Cole’s new album “KOD” isn’t for the masses, right now everyone is too caught up in the lil uzi’s and lil yachty’s to appreciate the message. Nevertheless I truly hope people are listening because there are important things addressed in KOD, I’ll fill you in on a few.
KOD stands for three things, Kids on drugs, King overdosed, and Kill our Demons, the intention of this album however, in the words of Cole himself, is left for our interpretation.
In the song Brackets he talks about good ol Uncle Sam and how our tax dollars are not set up in a way that benefits the Black community.
“Yeah, I pay taxes, so much taxes, shit don’t make sense Where do my dollars go? You see lately, I ain’t been convinced I guess they say my dollars supposed to build roads and schools But my niggas barely graduate, they ain’t got the tools Maybe ’cause the tax dollars that I make sure I send Get spent hirin’ some teachers that don’t look like them And the curriculum be tricking them, them dollars I spend Got us learning about the heroes with the whitest of skin One thing about the men that’s controlling the pen That write history, they always seem to white-out they sins”
In FRIENDS he talks about the lack of ambition in the Black community, for reasons that are endless. These reasons seem to make people always jump to the conclusion of “the world is set up for me to fail, so why try?” He is also pointing out the amount of trauma that Black individuals go through while growing up, but yet therapy is looked down on. Instead we self medicate with drugs and try to numb the pain.
“And I hate it for my niggas ’cause they ain’t got ambition Fuck did you expect, you can blame it on condition Blame it on crack, you can blame it on the system Blame it on the fact that 12 got jurisdiction To ride around in neighborhoods that they ain’t ever lived in Blame it on the strain that you feel when daddy missing Blame it on Trump shit, blame it on Clinton Blame it on trap music and the politicians Or the fact that every black boy wanna be Pippen But they only got twelve slots on the Pistons Blame it on the rain, Milli Vanilli with the disk skip What I’m tryna say is the blame can go deep as seas Just to blame ’em all I would need like twenty CD’s There’s all sorts of trauma from drama that children see Type of shit that normally would call for therapy But you know just how it go in our community Keep that shit inside it don’t matter how hard it be Fast forward, them kids is grown and they blowing trees”
The very last song 1985 reminds you to never doubt J Cole’s skills as a rap artist. He puts the current rappers in check in the most humbling way, reminding them to remember that they are representative of the Black community and people are watching.
“But have you ever thought about your impact? These white kids love that you don’t give a fuck ‘Cause that’s exactly what’s expected when your skin black They wanna see you dab, they wanna see you pop a pill They wanna see you tatted from your face to your heels And somewhere deep down, fuck it, I gotta keep it real They wanna be black and think your song is how it feels”
I highly recommend you listen to KOD and after you finish the first listen go back and play it again to make sure you really heard him.