REVIEW: J.Cole – Born Sinner

Now I’m not what you would consider a “Huge” J.Cole Fan but what I have always appreciated is his effort to have meaningful, heartfelt and relatable stories in his music, he definitely harnesses this gift to make hip hop music that the people (his fans) can relate to instead of taking the normal approach most rappers do with making the subject matter mainly about themselves, and with that said his Sophomore album Born Sinner is just another body of work that displays his innovative writing skills and also showcases the melodic soundtrack he produces. If you are a true admirer of the culture of hip hop then as a rapper progression and growth should be very important to you and I’m pretty sure the North Carolina MC is one of those rappers seeing that with this album Cole tries to reinvigorate himself mentally and creatively with each track but judging from the album title it seems a lot of the content came from a dark mindset, like he was writing himself out of a dark place he was in mentally which I guess explains the “it’s way darker this time” intro that enters Villuminati at the beginning of the album and takes you on this audio journey of hate, disappointment, neglect and lust to lead you unto the light of positive prosperity.

Now fair warning, if you are only accustomed to 808’s, up tempo and simple chords and percussion styled production then the instrumentals on Born Sinner may not persuade you because as I stated earlier Cole is a admirer of the culture of hip hop thus meaning he is following the platform built by Mc’s of the past which inspires him to become legendary in this game so he has to not only reinvigorate his creative writing but also improve his production skills to best compliment his tales and I must say with records like Land of the Snakes which samples Da Art of Storytelling (Part 1) a classic outkast record or one of my personal favorites Forbidden Fruit which samples the smooth groove funky Mystic Brew by Ronnie Foster  its clear that Cole taking the initiative to grow artistically in all aspects and listener’s with a wide range of  sub genres for hip hop will definitely appreciate the production on this album.

The stand out records on Born Sinner would definitely have to be Crooked Smile which has RnB sensation TLC assisting on the chorus and Let Nas Down with Co Production from legendary producer No I.D , the song content on these two records are probably the most attentive seeing how Cole embraces his flaws and encourages every human being to appreciate theirs in advance and then on the flip side gets therapeutic  on a moment of despair between him and one of his hip hop idols and I believe that these two records out of all the others previews the direction Cole is heading towards with his music, to be open as possible and make timeless records  that impact people’s lives. 

I may not be your biggest J. Cole fan but I appreciate substantial hip hop music and he does that extremely well and I look forward to see what Jermaine has to offer this Cole World in the future.