I’m a big J. Cole fan so when the news came out last week that he had a new album dropping, I just had to write a little something. My relationship with Cole’s music has had its up and downs but the run he’s been on has been undeniable. A lot of us have been waiting for Kendrick and Cole to drop new solo projects and it looks like Cole will be up first. But I’d like to go way back on this one and go through his discography in chronological order because I feel it shows the true growth of an emcee. So without further adieu, here we go!
J. Cole dropped his first mixtape, The Come Up in 2007. But the raps heard on that mixtape had been written years prior as Cole was working on his penmanship. It’s also worth noting that a young Jermaine played the violin and had a 4.2 GPA in high school. During that time, his mother clearly saw his interest in music and bought him an ASR-X sampler and a Roland TR-808 drum machine so he could work on his production skills. He later when on to accept a scholarship to St. Johns University in New York where he graduated in 2007 with a 3.8 GPA with a degree in Communication and Business. That same year he dropped The Come Up where Cole flexed his rhymes over popular beats.
2009 marked a very important year in Cole’s career as he dropped his 2nd mixtape, The Warm Up which eventually led to him signing with Roc Nation on a management deal. He also landed some big features with Jigga’s The Blueprint 3 on “A Star is Born” and 2 tracks with Wale including “Rather Be With You” with 9th Wonder on the beat and Wale, Cole, and Curren$y on the rhymes. But back to the The Warm Up, it was truly when fans knew that Cole was one of the next greats. While “Lights Please” would be the track that received the most buzz, it was songs like “Welcome” and “World is Empty” that I was really vibing to.
If 2009 was a sign of things to come, Cole kept his foot on the gas in 2010 when he jumped on one of the best posse tracks ever recorded with “Just Begun” off of the Reflection Eternal album, Revolutions Per Minute. Reflection Eternal was Hi-Tek on the beats with Kweli on the rhymes but on this track they brought in the mighty Mos Def, Jay Electronica, and J.Cole in on the fun. This was a time when everybody was still waiting for Jay Elec to drop his album and then you had the young buck Jermaine jumping on the track with the legends. This is a top 5 hip hop song for me over the past 10 - 15 years. The beat along with every verse are special.
Later in 2010, J. Cole rode the “Just Begun” wave all the way to the release of his 3rd mixtape, Friday Night Lights. In my opinion, this was Cole’s best mixtape and the first time where he showed he could keep a listener tuned in for an entire album. There are honestly too many dope songs to mention off of this release. If you’re not up on the mixtape, you just have to go listen to it from front to back. But for this article, I’m going to include “Premeditated Murder” which is one of my favorites.
And I can’t just skip over the fact that Friday Night Lights brought us a young Cole and a young Drizzy Drake on the same track with “In the Morning” where it sounded like Drake had a cold but even with the scuffled vocals it still worked. Smooth jam that all the girls loved. This definitely got major play on a CDR in my disc changer on dates back when I was single.
The next year, in 2011, Cole dropped the 3rd song in the Simba trilogy with “Return of the Simba” which once again showed growth from Cole who was in album mode and the confidence was at an all-time high. Cole’s flow on “Return of the Simba” along with the sampling and drum programming are on point. The double-time flow was unexpected as well but he easily had the breath control to handle that kinda vocal style if he needed to.
On July 31st, 2011, Cole released a few tracks that didn’t make the cut for his debut album. It was the track “How High” and the mellow Cole that I really liked. If these songs didn’t make the album, then what was he about to drop? Anticipation kept building.
Cole’s debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story dropped September 27, 2011 on Roc Nation. I don’t know if any emcee could live up to the hype that was built around his debut. The first single “Who Dat” just didn’t seem like a Cole track to his original fanbase and “Work Out” seemed like such a stretch for the young emcee from Fayetteville, NC. Even the “Mr. Nice Watch” track with Jigga was a letdown as the beat just didn’t hit. At least not for me. But beyond all of this, the album did have of the tracks that fans expected from a debut from him. While we had already heard “Lights Please” and “In the Morning” on prior mixtapes, it was songs like “Lost Ones,” “Sideline Story,” “Breakdown,” and “Nobody’s Perfect” that I look back at and realize that his debut had some true Cole type cuts. “Nobody’s Perfect” was my favorite when the album dropped and it’s still up there for me on this album.
Leading up to Cole’s 2nd album, word was circulating that Cole and Kendrick were working on an album together and that they already had a few cuts made. This got everybody excited for the potential dream collaboration of the 2 hottest young emcees in the game at the time. When Cole released the tracklisting for his 2nd album, Born Sinner, it was the song “Forbidden Fruit” that featured Kendrick that all of the fans were dying to hear. But then….. All we got was K-Dot on the chorus? C’mon man!
On Born Sinner, Cole did have some nice tracks but you knew that he was only scratching the surface of his greatness. Just like the hooper that he is, Cole needed to work on his jumpshot in the offseason. And that’s exactly what he did.
Here’s one of the Kendrick and Cole songs that leaked called “Temptation.” Excuse the bad quality but that’s all we got to work with here!
Cole’s next mixtape release came in 2013 with the EP, Truly Yours. My favorite track off of that EP was “Stay” which showed a Cole that we just weren’t seeing often on his full length releases.
And then, late in 2014, we all got what we had been waiting for. Cole dropped his first classic album by returning to his roots by naming the album the address of his childhood home, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. This album was and is so dope. Just the overall vibe of the album with when it dropped, the album cover, and the range of songs confirmed what all of his fans always believed in him for. Cole was one of the great ones in this genre we all love. I can’t even drop just one song here so if you don’t know this album, just press play and go about your day. Don’t skip anything. Just listen.
In December of 2016, Cole announced his new album and released a couple of tracks to help build hype. Cole had the impossible task of following up a classic album but when he dropped “False Prophets” rapping over a Freddie Joachim beat that Joey Bada$$ used on “Waves.” On this track, Cole appeared to be talking about Kanye in the first verse, Drake in the 2nd verse, and Wale in the 3rd verse. This will always be debated but it’s hard to deny that the first verse isn’t about Kanye.
Cole also dropped “Everybody Dies” which was fire too but here’s “False Prophets.” Shout out to Freddie Joachim on the production.
Cole dropped 4 Your Eyez Only a few days later and the album I feel is still super slept on. You got the track “Foldin Clothes” which my wife loves but you also have “Neighbors” that ranks up near the top of all Cole tracks in my opinion. Such a fresh effortless flow over a simple beat with great lyrical content. This is rap music right here. “I guess the neighbors think I’m selling dope…”
Through my research for this article, I found out that this album was certified platinum so let’s just skip over the fact that I thought this album was slept on. Guess I just slept on it?
2018 saw Cole stay hot with KOD which was another classic album from Jermaine. At this point in the game, it was apparent that Cole had found his lane and wasn’t going to let anybody take him off of his vibe. And the fact that we was self-producing these albums without any features was impressive. Dude could do it all by himself. Here’s the full KOD album because track by track it goes.
And then Cole I guess felt that he hadn’t dropped enough so he was like, okay, here’s “Album of the Year” with me rapping over “Oochie Wally.” Damn Jermaine…. Heater after heater.
Next up for Cole was putting on those from his Dreamville Records label. the roster is stacked too… Bas, Omen, Lute, JID, EARTHGANG, Air Lennox, and more. Revenge of the Dreamers III dropped in 2019 and it executed flawlessly bringing together a bunch of artists on one project without it sounding forced. Similar to Kanye’s Hawaii Sessions, Cole had everybody in ATL to work on the recording of this album. Artists were flying in for the friendly competition to get on the album. This video shows everything. It was rap battles through verses going in every room at Tree Sound Studios.
Damn… If I could have been a fly on this Dreamville wall!
Cole took a break after the Dreamville compilation but started popping up again with a few tracks last year with the Lewis Street singles. And now we have the announcement of the new album, The Off-Season along with the first track released, “i n t e r l u d e.” It’s official, it’s Cole season.
To get ready for the album, I put together this J. Cole playlist below which includes all of my favorite tracks and features from the North Carolina emcee. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for checking my article out!