J Cole is back with his 4^th studio album titled 4 Your Eyez Only. North Carolina hip hop artist, has been dropping mixtapes since 2007. My initial impression of him wasn’t that strong one way or another. My first exposure to his work was 2014 Forest Hill Drive, an album that was almost universally loved by his fan base. I didn’t get much out of it. I saw talent in him for sure but other than that I didn’t fall head over heels for his music the way a lot of other people did. I did however hear that J Cole was dropping an album this year and I decided I would give him a second chance to impress me and win me over. So did he win me over?

Well I do like this album better than Forest Hill Drive. Maybe I need to go back and listen to that record again but I found more in this album than I did in his 2014 effort. Mostly what I like about this record is the idea of him rapping from the first person point of view of somebody else other than him. The first half of this record and the overall story that this album is telling is told from the perspective of one of J Cole’s friends who is now deceased. This friend who is referred to as James is struggling with the life he is leading in the hood. Having to deal with drug dealers and gang bangers all the time. The opening track “For Whom The Bell Tolls” shows this man struggling to come to terms that this is the life he is leaving. He contemplates whether or not it is a life he wants to continue living. Then later on it goes into his relationship with his daughter who seems to be the one thing that keeps him going on “She’s Mine part 1.” His daughter is his one reason to live. The first five or six tracks do a really good job setting up the narrative and carrying it forward, and I certainly love the idea of these songs. Like on “Immortal” with the hook “Real n*ggas don’t die”. Basically saying in the hood only the real survive. There are some pretty sharp hooks on this album as well including “Immortal” and “Change.” The story of James is definitely a compelling one and it had a lot of potential, even after James gets killed off at the end of Changes.

Unfortunately, right after the song “Changes” the narrative of this song starts to fall apart. After “Changes” the point of view shifts from James to J Cole himself, which makes sense because he is painted as a close friend of this man. However, the next two songs don’t have anything to do with the narrative that he spent five songs putting together. Instead he gives us “Neighbors” which is a pretty good song about racial stereotyping based on the true story of when J Cole moved into an upper class and presumably white neighborhood, he had the cops called on him because they assumed he was selling dope out of it. "Neighbors" is a good song, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see how it fits into the story. Then we get an entirely out of left field jam about doing laundry on “Folding Clothes.” Listening to this song is like eating an entire bowl of sugar doused in corn syrup, it is the corniest thing I have ever heard. The idea is that J Cole feels like the best version of himself when he is folding clothes and doing work for his girlfriend. I appreciate the sentiment that he likes to take care of his woman, but this song has absolutely no place on this record.

Then he finally works his way back to the daughter of his friend who dies, and I suppose he takes sort of responsibility as being her new father figure on “She’s Mine pt 2”. Then he ends the album with the title track being one final message for his friends daughter from her father James. A message he recorded for her in the form of this song that she could listen to if anything happened to him and he was no longer around to be there for her. A message that is as the title suggests for her eyes only. It’s a powerful and moving ending to the album for sure. I respect the ambition that J Cole obviously brought to this album and there is a lot of heart and good intention in this record. But the execution was really not there. I see what he was trying to do but I don’t think he stuck the landing.

First of all, the narrative overall is thinly written. There isn’t much detail about this guy outside of his current predicament. We don’t get much information on how he came to be in the situation he is in. We barely get to hear anything from the perspective of the daughter, just a post song skit on “Ville Mentality.” I assume that’s the daughter but even that is ambiguous, because the song is listed before “She’s Mine pt 1” and before I think the audience is even supposed to know there is a daughter. The skit could have been a transitional device to lead into “She’s Mine pt 1” but then in the skit, the father of the girl who’s talking is already dead. James doesn’t die until the end of “Changes” so what is that about? To quote the opening track “I DON’T KNOW!!!” Then when the perspective shifts to J Cole as I’ve said it’s almost like he has forgotten his friend had just died for two tracks. If he had taken out “Neighbors” and “Folding Clothes” and written some mournful songs that show maybe how he’s coping with the death of his friend, that would have made the narrative feel more fluid instead of grinding it to a halt. It also would have added another layer to it as well, because Cole then could have talked about how he couldn’t be there for him because of his fame. Fame is something that J Cole complains about on this record a lot. As it is it sounds pretty whiny, but if he had done it the way I think he should have done it, it could have added another layer to the narrative.

The more I listened to this album the more questions I had about how we got to certain points. Like “She’s Mine pt 2” how did Cole get in contact with the daughter? What kind of relationship did Cole and James have? Were they close? Did they grow apart and not see each other for a while? I don’t know because none of these questions get answered. He also could have paralleled his perspective in the second half to the quandaries his friend was having at the beginning. In anger that his friend is dead he starts to question things and then he meets the daughter and finds new meaning and self-worth. The daughter is clearly made to represent the feeling of self-worth and strength in this narrative. But she feels underused by the end of the album. James defines himself and his self-worth through his daughter. J Cole I think is supposed to have a similar realization by the end, but the impact doesn’t land like it should because he had spent the last two tracks before butchering the narrative.

In the end this album was alright but it had potential to be great and I think J Cole dropped the ball big time on that chance. Which is a real shame because I wanted to love this record. There is certainly a lot to like about this record, the beats are solid and J Cole’s performance is on point for the most part. He comes through with some nice lines and good delivery. This is a technically proficient album. If he had spent a little more time thinking through the story that he wanted to tell through this album he might have been able to tighten up some of these holes and really made an album of the year candidate. But as it is the narrative is riddled with plot holes and gets completely lost halfway through. This is an album that you will enjoy while you’re listening to it, but will frustrate and confuse you when you really start to think about it. Which is why I’m giving it a strong 6/10 and a tentative recommendation more directed towards J Cole’s core fan base than passive listeners. It’s too bad because I really wanted J Cole to win me over to his side on this record, but I can’t really say he has. I am willing to give him another album though because I did potential here. If you read this far thank you very much. You’re the best. I believe this is my longest review to date. Sorry about that, there was a lot of material to cover here. If you’ve listened to this album and you have an opinion on it agreeing or otherwise. Comment below and let me know. And as always keep living and keep loving.