On “FRIENDS,” he confesses to his dependence on weed before calling out specific friends who abuse drugs in asking them to stop, he mostly ditches his sanctimony. When he does, it’s thanks to the emotional appeals he embeds in certain songs. But even so, Cole is capable of making a strong case for his beliefs.
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(His previous album, 4 Your Eyez Only, was all about death.) Aside from his weakness for corny punchlines, his verses are frequently free of the word games that his top-tier peers revel in. Sometimes, he’s persuasive, but just as often, he simply seems self-righteous.įor a talented technical rapper with reverence for hip-hop’s history, Cole has never really been playful. Cole to enjoy his wit or his stories, but to partake in his wisdom, which often involves an element of moral panic: On his new addiction-themed album, KOD, he loves to suggest that people should abstain from things-smoking, drinking, online dating.
And while many of his individual claims can be convincing, you often get to the end of a song and think something like: Wait, did he really just argue that corporations take taxes and use them to buy and spread guns? Few artists stake so much on their ability to persuade an audience of their worldview, particularly when that worldview is so absolutist. Throughout his career, Cole’s raps have often been self-serious and polemical, with their success depending on the overall strength of his argumentation above all else.
Cole album can feel like listening to a very intense young lawyer attempt to win a difficult case.