Rap fans finally got their highly-anticipated album from North Carolina native J. Cole last Friday. Fans had high expectations for "KOD," J. Cole’s fifth studio album, following the 2016 release of "4 Your Eyez Only," which had a more intimate and solemn sound in comparison to this new work. Cole even broke Drake’s record of most streams in the first 24 hours on Apple Music.
While songs on "4 Your Eyez Only" tackled the topic of death, the songs on "KOD" paint a picture of addiction. The album cover gives a sneak peek into the content of the songs, with the sentence "This album is in no way intended to glorify addiction" in thin letters at the top. The day before the album’s release, Cole sent out this tweet:
The most prominent of these meanings that I saw (though I saw evidence of all three through the album) was "Kill Our Demons." Evident from the very first track on the album, "KOD" seems to heavily focus on all kinds of addiction, including drugs, love, revenge and infidelity. A female voiceover shows up in several tracks, providing small bits of wisdom about how to kill the implied demons of obsession and addiction, and creates a narrative that sets the tone for the entire album.
A highlight from the album, and one that executes the topic of addiction well, is the ninth track, "Once an Addict (Interlude)." The rapper tells the story of his addict mother, who is constantly using Cole as a ‘crutch,’ and her bad habits. What this song does well is show the impact that addiction has on those surrounding the addict. Cole describes being too young to know how to handle his mother’s situation, and having to leave his house because it caused him so much pain to see his mother in that state. He then talks about the guilt that he felt about running from the problem, instead of confronting his mother about how he felt and trying to find ways to help her. Though it probably would not be considered a radio hit, the message is one of the most emotionally relatable and impactful on the album.
"ATM" and "Motiv8" are two tracks that will probably see more success based of their beats than their lyrics. Though they touch on the idea of being addicted to a high-class lifestyle and external forms of stimulation, these tracks remind me of early J. Cole tracks that were blasted through stereos, not for the lyrical content but for the music that accompanied them.
While an artist named ‘kiLL edward’ is listed as feature on two of the tracks, the internet has gone to great lengths to explain that is is simply a modified version of Cole’s voice and is just an alter ego of Cole. It would seem contradictory to his image to have a feature, but nothing has been confirmed by Cole or the record label about the featured rapper. In the album’s second track, "KOD," Cole reminds us of his featureless reputation, assuring listeners that no one is worthy of being on his tracks. He has casually mentioned this in previous albums, but brings the topic up in a uncharacteristically aggressive way, which takes away from the nobility of having great success without features.
This is a good album overall, but I am not sure that he will ever release an album with the lyrical and production quality of his third album "2014 Forest Hills Drive." While I enjoyed a few songs, I thought the collective execution of discussing the issue of addiction was lacking. With some stand-out songs that really seem to have an impactful message about addiction and its effects, I think Cole could’ve done so more consistently through all twelve tracks.