#killourdemons

Aight, so here it is, KOD.

It’s my first J. Cole album I enjoy by far tbh, because I don’t seem to get his appeal (even tho I like lyrical Hip-Hop too) at the first listen, maybe it’s because I understand what’s the subject matter here, so yea let’s get into it.

Released in 4/20 to NOT glorify about drug use & addiction. Wow.

Shout-out my homie @ywrbgs for the review request. (Go follow his IG, he makes dope-ass beats)

01. Intro - Jazzy. Great intro for the album, the narration pretty much sums up the synopsis for this album. At first I was judging the rest of the songs to sound like the intro, Jazzy, Boom-bap-ish & conscious bUT HEY LOOK WHO’S SURPRISED—

02. KOD - JESUS, I DIDN’T KNEW HE COULD GO THIS HARD. BRO. THIS HARD. HE PRODUCED HIS OWN ALBUMS RIGHT?? THIS SHIT- FIRE YO. I like how he acknowledged the current state of Hip-Hop & drug glorifying in Hip-Hop, and him to do it in such a modern way (Trap beats, etc) makes this even more enjoyable, a definite favorite.

“Bitches been askin’, "What have you done lately?” I stacked a few M’s like my last name was Shady"

You know how I be when I hear Eminem references.

I go brazy.

Ballistic.

03. Photograph - Y'know I gotta put it in the personal favorites when it’s about love. It pretty much talks about Cole being in love with a random girl he met on IG (I suppose? It could be Twitter/Tinder/any other social medias) & how easy it is for people to fell in love with someone by just seeing a photograph of them. Me personally I relate to the song A-FUCKING-LOT (Yes I’m apparently a hopeless romantic who falls in love easily, thankfully I have someone to fight for now lmao). The hook pretty much hit me in the heart like “fUCK”, definitely a big recommend for someone who wants to start listening to J. Cole the easy way. And yeah the beat? The beat slap mad hard yo whatthefu-

04. The Cut Off (feat. kiLL edward) - Well here’s another feature from none other his alter ego he created to promote this album, it came back to that Boom-Bap and boy I enjoy this a lot. Lyrically he’s talking about people who cut him off for money/fame/clout/you name it, as much as he wants to take revenge for how people treated him badly, he knows that revenge is God’s work so he lets them off. Overall the song is a great song to vibe to, to understand to & all that. But I think it lacks something else, I just don’t know how to describe it, maybe it lacks an impactful moment? Still a great song overall

05. ATM - You ain’t a rapper if you don’t have a song to flex about in one of your albums. This song’s all about Cole flexing about his money but yet ironically he depicts about how people will do anything for money & how people’s lives are chained just because of money, hence the title of the song. (Addicted to Money)

Everything here slaps, the beat, the rap, the hook & how sarcastically Cole talks about his wealth in here, everything’s great. I wonder how people would think about this song without knowing how Cole is lol.

06. Motiv8 - Yea boy another song about getting money, seems like Cole is pretty frustrated about how these people get money nowadays. But ay, it is pretty pathetic to see it tbh, a promising talent on the come up, 3 years later people don’t even know them no more or even worse. (RIP XXX & Peep)

What’s ironic to me is that the song is lit, like I can’t lie man the song is lit. But what he raps about makes me think twice about how fucked up is the rap game. I feel like this song & ATM definitely takes inspirations from SoundCLoud rappers as heard as how the beats are & how Cole flows on the beats.

07. Kevin’s Heart - AYY BOY ANOTHER PERSONAL FAVORITE. ENOUGH SAID. How Cole talks about cheating to their certain other. That shit broke my heart.

As someone who understands about these things but yet to actually never been through these things just makes me even more confused, like do you ever understand something that you never been through? That’s how I am in my love life.

Sorry for being oot but I’ve been single for like what now? 3 years? And shit bro as much as I want to experience these kinda things again I couuldn’t because I haven’t found someone who wants me yet. Yet I understand how heartbreaks are & how people deal with it, but at the same time I feel ironic to empathize these kinda feelings, I feel fake, just like how Cole said it in the bridge.

Wow. This shit really wrecked me. 10/1 best outta best.

Where did my heart went now??

08. BRACKETS - Now this here, is some shit I gotta listen to a couple of times to actually get the gist of. Because I don’t really understand about how taxes in America works, I’ll just comment on what I got from thing song aight, so it’s basically Cole talking about how taxes are charged in America & where do the money go, does it go to fund the development of the States? Or does it go to some “money-hungry company” as Cole stated in the song. This that retrospective shit you gotta binge listen to actually understand fully what the song’s all about.

09. Once an Addict (Interlude) - Picturing about how his mom’s an alcoholic, I’ve been listening to these typa songs since I first found Eminem back in 2011 & now I’m back listening to someone who depicts almost the same topic in 2018, I feel great to actually listen someone who still holds story-telling in their raps, Cole is definitely one of the greatest in today’s era, proven by how he raps here. And tbh this is my very first time to listen to an interlude longer than 2 minutes, as if this interlude could actually be a song itself if you ask me.

10. FRIENDS (feat. kiLL edward) - At first I thought this song was about how addiction could start with a bad enviroment (You smoking as a minor with your friends, you get me?) but instead this songs about Cole’s message to his friends who is battling with addiction.

In here he wants people to know that drug abuse isn’t the way to escape the problems that they’re facing, but having a positive mindset will help them through. Imo I couldn’t agree more, but some people do really need the drugs to help, but I’m not promoting in drug usage in any sort of ways, I’m just saying if it helps better then do it, just don’t overdo it.

11. Window Pain (Outro) - This fucking outro man, I don’t fucking know how the fuck did Cole managed to put such a message in this outro but goddamn.

This is beautiful.

It’s all about Cole being introspective about what he wants in his life & how he is grateful for everything that happened in his life.

One interesting point about this outro is about the narrative of a girl telling about how her cousin got shot badly in her house. Her cousin was about to pick up the girl until some goons shot her cousin in the face and neck.

Surprisingly he’s still alive & the girl telling the story told that it was “God’s grace” for him to be spared alive. Unto been asked why do bad things happen & why won’t just good things happen to the world, the little girl replied:

“Because God is tryna, um Warn-warn us or teach us a lesson that we need to learn Or He’s tryna warn us of He’s comin’ back to, um, see us and take us home and redo the world He’s comin’ back to, um, have us be His children and for us to see Him for the first time so we can rejoice with Him and have our time And after we do that, He’s gonna restart the world”

Referring to Christians believing that God is going to be back to restart the world back to the pure, good world it was.

I’m surprised that Cole isn’t afraid to talk about these things, as the world is pretty much atheistic by now & I gotta respect him for being able to talk so.

12. 1985 (Intro to “The Fall Off”) - Presumably going to be the intro for his next album, Cole raps about the state of today’s Hip-Hop & easy is for a young rapper to rise & fall easily in this age of time.

People are saying that Cole is taking shots at various young reckless rappers i.e. Lil Pump/Smokepurrp/You name it, but I think that he’s actually trying to warn about how their actions could lead to their own downfall, seeing that Cole isn’t that type to be offended about today’s state of Hip-Hop (Proven by how he used trap beats & generic trap flows in this album) I don’t really think he’s “dissing” anyone here.

Welp, there it is, KOD. I like how J. Cole kept the album short & simple by just 12 tracks yet each songs has it own depths to understand about.

One thing I gotta take a not of is that… The overall album content’s pretty ironic tbh. Lit trap beats opposed to conscious rap, got me feeling some typa way.

DON’T EVEN ASK ME ABOUT HOW I FEEL ON KEVIN’S HEART, THAT SHIT LITERALLY BROKE MY HEART & MOOD, I GOTTA TAKE A BREAK FROM WRITING THIS FOR AROUND AN HOUR OR SO, JUST BECAUSE HOW I COULD RELATE TO IT. Jfc.

Personal favorites: KOD, Photograph (I fucking lOVE THIS SHIT), DAVID’S HEART YEA I SAID IT FUCK YOU, Window Pain (Outro)