J. Cole releases new album "KOD": his most influential yet

The world went crazy on Friday when J. Cole released his new addiction-themed album, “KOD.”



“2014 Forest Hills Drive,” will forever be J. Cole’s most influential album because of how melodically pleasing it is. But his fifth and most recent album “KOD” touches on extremely important and relevant issues regarding drugs, addiction, and the downfalls of our current social media obsession. It is J. Cole’s most meaningful body of work so far, because drugs are killing an absurd number of kids every year and he addresses that problem. His music, his album, cover art and every track makes you think about how meaningless the message of a lot of rap music really is these days.

Jermaine aka, “J. Cole,” broke his interview silence for the first time in three years and sat down to discuss some important issues with Paul Cantor from Vulture magazine not long after the release of “KOD.”

“We live in a society where all this drug use is normalized, it’s the norm, it’s okay, it’s fucking encouraged, it’s fucking promoted,” he told Cantor.

This solidifies the message that Cole is trying to portray throughout, “KOD.” He is fed up with the glorification of drugs in his world and he decides to speak up about it. There has been a lot of reviewers saying that J. Cole comes off as “cocky,” or “entitled,” but I strongly believe that he is just confident in himself and genuinely wants to advise the youth of this generation that drugs aren’t as cool as rappers such as “Lil Xan’s” make them sound.

One of the tracks is “Kevin’s Heart” about Kevin Hart’s infidelity scandal. I know, I was shocked too.
Cole explains in a tweet one day before the album was released that the three meanings of KOD are:

“Kids on drugs, King overdosed, Kill our demons”

After the release of his single “false prophets” in 2016, J. Cole is no stranger to stirring up conflict by pointing out the problems of the rap industry. In the track, “1985 - Intro to “The Fall Off”,”J. Cole calls the new age “lil” rappers out. The track is more of an advice song than a diss-track though. He has been in the game for around 10 years now, and schools the new rappers on why riding the waves of what is popular right now will only bring them failure in the near future. One of the album meanings, “Kids on drugs,” is arguably tied to all of the music that other top-tier rappers put out that glorify and depict drugs in a way that influences people to associate them with being “hard” or cool.

The introduction song really gets you ready for the theme of the album, which is that we have the opportunity to choose how we deal with our demons and we should “choose wisely.” He tried to create a full circle album that addresses the issue and suggests a solution, but if you sit and listen to the entire album trying to find his solution all you will find is a song about meditating. Don’t get me wrong- there was a lot that went right about this album, but I don’t think you can ignore the fact that J. Cole essentially claims in the track “FRIENDS” that instead of medicating we should just “meditate,” and the war on drugs and addiction will graciously disappear.

This album was meaningful, and you kind of feel like your stepping into J. Coles mind and deepest thoughts when you listen to his music. There are some cheesy lines and his attempt at suggesting a solution to the current drug problem failed miserably in all honesty. He should have never included a line saying just, “Meditate don’t medicate,” because that oversimplifies the issue drastically. There is know one solution to the problem, and the album would be more impactful if he wouldn’t have suggested a solution at all. He isn’t a god, like he has said on multiple occasions, so he should not pretend like he has all of the answers. That being said - This album is one of his best.

At a glance:

ALBUM: Forest Hill Drive

RELEASED: November 16, 2014

LABEL: Roc Nation, Dreamville, ByStorm, Columbia

PRODUCER: J. Cole, Mark Pitts, Cardiak, CritaCal, Dré Charles, Illmind, Jproof, Nick Paradise, Phonix Beats, Pop Wansel, Ron Gilmore, Vinylz, Willie B GENRE: Hip hop, conscious hip hop