Jermaine Cole, also known as J. Cole, is a rapper and producer from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who has become one of the biggest hip-hop artists of the "new school" era. Coming off his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album, which went double platinum with no features, J. Cole decided to release his fourth studio album on December 9, 2016 called 4 Your Eyez Only. J. Cole's newest album arrived with little notice and information and also attempts to go platinum with no features.

My Listening Experience

Listening to a work of art and catching the subtle metaphors and meanings is probably my favorite part of music. When I first started listening to albums all the way through, the first album I listened to was J. Cole's Born Sinner. I immediately liked that project as I did with this one (J. Cole's my favorite artist, ok you got me).

By the title, I thought 4 Your Eyez Only was directed to the listeners, but that assumption turned out to be wrong. I enjoyed the song "Immortal," but during the song I could kind of tell that Cole wasn't talking about himself. He was talking from a perspective, at that moment, I wasn't familiar with.

Another moment that put a smile on my face was when I heard the beat in "Deja Vu". I knew I heard the song before but I could place exactly where initially. Then I realized it was from Bryson Tiller's "Exchange". Those are the moments that excite me as a listener.

"She's Mine Pt. 1" was like an ode to his wife. Cole is known to keep his personal life, well personal. It was just revealed that days before the album's release, Cole had his first daughter.

In "Change," the last verse and the outro mentions Cole's friend, James McMillan Jr., who was killed. This got me thinking was if this album was about McMillan more than J. Cole? In the general sense of the song, I really liked it. Sometimes you need someone else to tell you something you already know.

I think the story of "Neighbors" is actually pretty crazy. The producer that helped on this album verified that this was an actual event that happened to Cole. In one of their music studio houses in North Carolina, the neighbors called the police on Cole's house thinking that drugs or something suspicious was going on there. But when the police searched the house, all they found is a music studio in the basement. However, this event resulted in an awesome song.

The last song, "4 Your Eyez Only", was basically a tell-all almost 9-minute song of bars. You can't tell he's not rapping from his perspective until the last verse. He's rapping about selling drugs and the uphill battle people face to get back into society after going to jail. Then during this verse:

"You probably grown now so this song'll hit you
If you're hearing this, unfortunately
Means that I'm no longer with you in the physical"

I realized that the perspective that J. Cole was rapping from the perspective of James McMillan, his friend that was slain. McMillan was rapping to his little daughter, Nina, and Cole was doing what he does best, storytelling. The last verse is one of the reasons why I like J. Cole so much, and why this song is probably one of my favorite songs I have ever heard. It conveys so much emotion and thought while convey someone else perspective which I find could be difficult.

I felt a lot of people were expecting the bump-in-your-whip Cole album, and though there were some of those songs, it also carried some smooth jazz slow songs that contributed to the overall message. The album was not all way written from McMillan's perspective so I believe the intent was the mirror the similarities between Cole and McMillan's lives. This has easily become one of my favorite albums to listen.