Aight, so here it is, KOD.
Itās my first J. Cole album I enjoy by far tbh, because I donāt seem to get his appeal (even tho I like lyrical Hip-Hop too) at the first listen, maybe itās because I understand whatās the subject matter here, so yea letās 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 WHOāS SURPRISEDā
02. KOD - JESUS, I DIDNāT 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.
āBitches been askinā, "What have you done lately?ā I stacked a few Mās 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 itās 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 Iām 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 āfUCKā, 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 hereās 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 heās 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 Godās 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 donāt know how to describe it, maybe it lacks an impactful moment? Still a great song overall
05. ATM - You aināt a rapper if you donāt have a song to flex about in one of your albums. This songās all about Cole flexing about his money but yet ironically he depicts about how people will do anything for money & how peopleās 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, everythingās 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 donāt even know them no more or even worse. (RIP XXX & Peep)
Whatās ironic to me is that the song is lit, like I canāt 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. Kevinās 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? Thatās how I am in my love life.
Sorry for being oot but Iāve been single for like what now? 3 years? And shit bro as much as I want to experience these kinda things again I couuldnāt because I havenāt 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 donāt really understand about how taxes in America works, Iāll just comment on what I got from thing song aight, so itās 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 āmoney-hungry companyā as Cole stated in the song. This that retrospective shit you gotta binge listen to actually understand fully what the songās all about.
09. Once an Addict (Interlude) - Picturing about how his momās an alcoholic, Iāve been listening to these typa songs since I first found Eminem back in 2011 & now Iām 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 todayās 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 Coleās message to his friends who is battling with addiction.
In here he wants people to know that drug abuse isnāt the way to escape the problems that theyāre facing, but having a positive mindset will help them through. Imo I couldnāt agree more, but some people do really need the drugs to help, but Iām not promoting in drug usage in any sort of ways, Iām just saying if it helps better then do it, just donāt overdo it.
11. Window Pain (Outro) - This fucking outro man, I donāt fucking know how the fuck did Cole managed to put such a message in this outro but goddamn.
This is beautiful.
Itās 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 heās still alive & the girl telling the story told that it was āGodās graceā for him to be spared alive. Unto been asked why do bad things happen & why wonāt just good things happen to the world, the little girl replied:
āBecause God is tryna, um Warn-warn us or teach us a lesson that we need to learn Or Heās tryna warn us of Heās cominā back to, um, see us and take us home and redo the world Heās cominā 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, Heās gonna restart the worldā
Referring to Christians believing that God is going to be back to restart the world back to the pure, good world it was.
Iām surprised that Cole isnāt 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 āThe Fall Offā) - Presumably going to be the intro for his next album, Cole raps about the state of todayās 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 heās actually trying to warn about how their actions could lead to their own downfall, seeing that Cole isnāt that type to be offended about todayās state of Hip-Hop (Proven by how he used trap beats & generic trap flows in this album) I donāt really think heās ādissingā 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 contentās pretty ironic tbh. Lit trap beats opposed to conscious rap, got me feeling some typa way.
DONāT EVEN ASK ME ABOUT HOW I FEEL ON KEVINāS 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), DAVIDāS HEART YEA I SAID IT FUCK YOU, Window Pain (Outro)
My fucking goodness this album actually wrecked me wtf.











