Co-Written by Abir Khan and Sameen Ali.

J Cole recently dropped one of the most highly anticipated rap albums of the fourth quarter of the year. There was talk of an album drop sometime during 2016, but everyone began to think he would wait one more year to release something. Fans were surprised on Dec. 1 when Cole announced that he would be releasing “4 Your Eyez Only” on Dec. 9, only eight days later. Listeners had mixed opinions on his latest album, including us.

Sameen: The Fan’s Perspective

In my eyes, “4 Your Eyez Only” is a skillfully written, reflective narrative. Some may argue that the album is boring because it lacks the bass-heavy and high-tempo music present throughout his last album “2014 Forest Hills Drive”, but the music is not the main focus of this album; the purpose is to tell a story. The beats and melodies in these tracks are purposefully slow and simple, so that it does not take away from the content of the songs. Being the social raptivist that he is, the lyrics are introspective, and address the heavy issues that those part of the black community face, including police brutality, as well as cultural and structural racism. On a more personal level, he also addresses survivor’s guilt in ‘Change’, along with the joy of having his wife and newly born daughter in his life in “She’s Mine Pt. 1” and “She’s Mine Pt. 2.” Cole deviates slightly from the topic of death and struggle in the album with these two songs- he talks about meeting his wife in the first and then raps about the love he has for his daughter as well as the responsibility that comes with being a new father and taking care of “someone more important than [him]” in Pt. 2. The important women in his life distract him from the tensions of the world and give him new hope. He’s “never felt so alive.” In “Neighbors,” Cole talks about the time when his neighbors in a wealthy suburb called the cops on him and his recording crew for thinking he was “sellin’ dope,” a result of racism and stereotyping.

Some people may have been disappointed with the vibe of this album, but it definitely isn’t an album meant to be blasted out loud- it’s the type of album you really have to sit down with your earbuds in and listen to. “2014 Forest Hills Drive” went platinum with no features, placing Cole with some of the greatest rappers and producers in history. His success, however, may have gone to his head. “4 Your Eyez Only” also has no features, and although Cole can successfully produce his own music and come up with his own lyrics, I have yet to decide whether it makes him greater or holds him back. Experimenting and creating music with other artists allows musicians to expand their style and put out something new and fresh. Take “Deja Vu” for example: Cole “sampled” the music from Bryson Tiller’s “Exchange” and rapped over it, and listeners called it unoriginal. Also, since the tone of the tracks in this album is unchanging, it can become a little monotonous, which is something another artist could have helped switch up a bit, and wouldn’t have taken away from the meaning.

Of course, each song on its own is great, but an important part of this music is to look at all of the songs as part of one big story. Once you connect all of the ideas in each of his tracks, an overall narrative can be seen. Although many of the songs address issues seen in the world today, along with some of Cole’s personal experiences, fans are told the story of a friend of J. Cole’s. As the album progresses, we learn more and more about this friend and the struggles he went through. Both the title of the album and the first track are a tribute to him and are dedicated to his daughter. Overall, I give the album a 3.5 out of 5.

Abir: The Critic’s Perspective

I never loved J. Cole’s music; it was always something that I listened to when I had no other option. The reason for that is because his music has always seemed so typical; the lackluster beats, amateur rhymes, and telling of the typical story of a rapper whose ‘Sideline Story’ brought him to fame.

So when I heard last Friday after school that “4 Your Eyez Only” came out, I tried my best to clear my mind of any past bias I had of J. Cole’s music. I opened up Apple Music and sat down on my bed, ready to be enlightened by whatever J. Cole had made.

My first time listening to the album was the following: “Eh.”

I didn’t enjoy it much, almost everything about it seemed subpar, J. Cole was simply going through the motions. His flow wasn’t as good as I expected it to be from someone who many claim is one of the greatest rappers of all time, nor were the messages he was trying to portray articulated in a deeper, more complex way that made me think or reflect on his message.

My second time listening to the album was the following: “Elaboration needed.”

The following day, when I listened to the album one more time, I looked past the flow and more at what J. Cole was actually trying to say, and how he was saying it.

Now is a good time to talk about the biggest issue of this album, and other albums of his. The hooks. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the phrase “hook,” it’s essentially a short phrase that catches the listener’s attention, and is normally the catchiest part of a song. The hook’s main purpose is to bring the listener in, and isn’t supposed to serve as the song’s majority. It is simply just a supporting part that helps reiterate the songwriter’s purpose. However, in J. Cole’s case, his hooks are the basis of the songs he creates; they are the “meat” of the songs. Many times, I feel as if I’m listening to the same thing being repeated over and over and over again, which is detrimental when looking at the impact J. Cole leaves at the end of his songs. This album is no exception to the trouble J. Cole has had with hooks. Taking a look at Deja Vu, the third song on “4 Your Eyez Only,” he repeats the line “put a finger in the sky if you want it, put two fingers in the sky if you want it” about eight times in the whole song. This repeated phrase, in addition to another repeated phrase used about eight times as well, end up taking up almost half of the song. In addition to there being basically two hooks in this song, these lines are repeated so many times that they are the only impact left on the listener.

Are there any good parts to this album?

Yes. J. Cole has improved from his last album, which is something I see as a surface level production of hip-hop. He has moved on from merely telling stories about just himself and his experiences to talking about the world he is surrounded by.

Taking a look at his condemnation of police brutality and toxic masculinity in inner city communities helps show that he is growing as a rapper and storyteller. In “She’s Mine, Pt. 2,” Cole references how he has fallen in love with his newborn daughter and that this point signifies the end of the “tough guy” act he references in “foldin’ clothes” that takes up the majority of men in inner cities. In “Neighbors,” Cole remarks on how much police brutality has impacted the black community, saying that he “can’t sleep cause [he is] paranoid”, and that even though there is “No evidence of the harm we done,” “Cops bust in with the army guns.”

In addition to J. Cole expanding the content he talks about, there have also been numerous amounts of theories that revolve around the entire album being told as a story, not from the perspective of J. Cole himself, but a friend of his. The album title is supposed to be a dedication to the friend’s daughter after he dies in the streets. Every single song is about Cole’s friend, who went from selling drugs, to eventually passing away, and gives this album to Cole to give to the friend’s daughter.

Let it be known that this way of structuring and creating an album is by no means a simple task, and it is through this theory that I realized that J. Cole, despite needing to fix a large amount of his rapping and producing, is growing.

All in all, J. Cole’s over reliance on hooks and over simplicity in this album are the reason it lacks a clear delivery of the great content it contains. “4 Your Eyez Only” gets a 2.5 out of 5.