If you didn’t listen to J. Cole’s new album, "4 Your Eyez Only," you should go do that. Right now. It's 44 minutes of pure heat. He had a 40-minute documentary released before the album dropped too. It gave us a little taste of what happens behind the scenes. He explained how he’s been out of the loop, focusing mainly on his family and new music. He also mentioned how this album was a challenge for him because he’s been off the scenes for so long. J. Cole had to find a new way to appeal to his audience and make something for us.
The documentary is a work of art. So many times we only get the music but we don’t really get a chance to see what actually happens in one's efforts to make their music come alive. There were so many beautifully talented people featured on this album, from the instruments on the tracks to the lyrical talents featured on them as well.
This album was an ode to the world, more specifically the Brown community. Speaking about the issues Brown people face every day. My favorite track on the album, "Neighbors, " is about integration. J. Cole made enough money to get out the hood and now that he’s out the hood he feels like an outcast; as though he doesn’t belong. He moved near an Ivy league institution with a bunch of rich, privately educated folks and they think he’s a big-time drug dealer. He speaks about how his friends and him smoke weed out of cigars on his mansion - the neighbors think he’s selling dope. They see cars pulling in and out of the house and other things associated with having a wealthy economic standing. But no, just because you have dreads, brown skin and live in a mansion surrounded by ivy leagues doesn’t mean you’re a big time drug dealer. They’ve called the cops, but thank the lord he is a platinum rapper so they get off easy. It’s been so tough over there that he’s currently building a mansion back in the hood, where "we belong."
The album speaks on him getting married, welcoming his new baby girl, wanting to die, wanting to live, neighbors thinking he’s selling dope, false prophets, wanting to treat his girl like a queen during her precious pregnancy, this presidential election, Kanye losing his mind, consumerism, gang violence, integration, trash rappers, police shootings, being present, appreciating life, losing his best friends to the hood, and much more. Listen to the album and add it to whatever list you have.
Brown people get stereotyped every day and it’s unfair to treat people differently by their phenotypes and other physical attributes. Our young men are dying over basketball games, getting caught up in sniffing coke, popping molly to have some fun on the weekends, getting plastic surgery to maintain the image of what it means to be a physically appealing woman, and people seeing nothing in you but sex and resources. It is the struggle of my life.
Whenever he drops his albums I always gain a new appreciation for him, his music and humanity overall. This is the music that I connect with, a music for the soul. These are the stories that should be told. We needed some new music for our community to hold on to because this is one of the important things that keeps us unified. Back in the days when our ancestors were slaves, music was our only freedom. The genre of Blue’s depicts that struggle and elaborates on it. Blues talk about loss and resilience. This album did some healing for us all in that same line of resilient and protesting odes to the soul.
