The Pop Corporation

In classic rock circles, sometimes a new group appears that’s so reverential to the past, that it’s missing all the verve and spontaneity of the thing it’s looking toward. If you’re someone who still goes out, still cares about new releases, you might concede that they’re kinda good at what they do, but the whole thing makes you shrug.

In worse cases, they are lesser than the sum of their parts and you can feel yourself getting actively wound-up by what you’re hearing and can feel the echoes of boring old-heads bemoaning the state of modern music and praising this half-arsed facsimile as being that good shit.

And so, to J Cole. Since he came out the blocks, he’s been putting his best foot forward to try and tell everyone that, pound for pound, he’s your guy if you’re missing Golden Era rap years. J Cole fans will argue that he’s still fresh and modern, but has all the hallmarks of the legends of years gone by. Detractors will tell you he’s almost beyond parody.

Is he talented? Of course. A million fans can’t be wrong, right? Well, Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ currently has 159 million views on YouTube, and we mention that band for a reason.

See, Cole is a man pushing Nu Backpack, and if we’re being fair, the guy isn’t totally devoid of any talent. On this new ‘tape, if you’re passively listening, ‘HYB’ sounds okay. There’s flow and hooks and all that palaver, but there’s no hiding from the fact that Cole has dropped a project on the strength of one of the biggest Ls in hip hop memory.

For someone who claims to have one of the truest aims in rap, it sure looked shaky as he took shots at Kendrick Lamar to then dial the whole thing back and say that he felt terrible at the whole situation. Of course, Cole’s peers and hip hop fans had a field day with him. He became the easiest target on the shooting range, and of course, he’s got form for it.

When Noname hit out at her peers, he effectively replied with a ‘girl, watch your tone’ reply in ‘Snow On Tha Bluff’, and again, dialled it back and saying he didn’t mean it and… look… sure, it’s nice that people can afford themselves the chance to give themselves some breathing space and say they spoke in anger, but the whole thing about Cole is that it doesn’t come off as vulnerability or thoughtfulness – it comes off as short-sighted and with a weak aim. He looks thin-skinned and will get riled by the lightest of jabs.

He’s one of the few rappers who can make his bars sound stale in real time. It’s a remarkable feat, honestly. Obviously, there’s some decent production to be had, because Cole shifts units, has a big audience and the money to get some quality behind him. It’s just a case of sometimes wishing you didn’t speak English, so you didn’t have to actually listen to the content in the various verses.

There’s 2Pac references on a track called ‘Huntin’ Wabbitz’, and Rock & Morty references on the corny ‘Pricey’, and Thor nods on ‘Stickz N Stonez’ and the whole thing sounds like the talk of someone a 14 year old thinks is smart. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with a flurry of pop culture references – hip hop is built on that – but on this body of work, it just makes you screw your face up.

If you’re going to compare yourself to the best of hip hop past, you better at least approach the dexterity and jazz of someone like Rakim, even if that’s a nigh-on impossible task. While his heroes could nimbly dance their way through the breaks, and his peers can deliver sermons over 808 bass drums, Cole finds himself far too satisfied while backed by snares that too frequently find themselves clumping along behind him like a sulky toddler. It’s stifling, rather than energising.

Sometimes, J Cole feels like someone who has studied the stats of rap, cramming in as many syllables as he can and knowing there’ll be some satisfaction from mixing up metaphors from old heads who think all new music is bad. However, seeing as he was almost beefing with Kendrick before his arse went, we’ll like-for-like comparison. See, Kendrick brought the heat when channelling golden era rap, had something definite to say, and bend that classic boom-bap into something modern in the trap era. While K.Dot straddled both worlds and aimed real high, Cole finds himself as a vague copy that satisfies neither the Old Head in you, nor the new. Like, seriously, you’d rather listen to Action Bronson honestly, and he’s basically a Stars In Their Eyes Ghostface Killah.

Cole legion of supposedly thoughtful fans will probably find a lot to love and no doubt end up defending their position on HipHopHeads on Reddit. The casual listener will invariably shrug and go ‘whatever, it’s alright’. However, if it’s hunting season every time Cole releases a new body of work, then the real winners on ‘Might Delete Later’ will be those who love trolling J Cole fans. There’s plenty of ammo here and he just fumbled right before everyone’s eyes because, even Cole knows – when it comes to talking up your own talents, when you come for the big guns, you better be certain of yourself, and here, we have an artist that truly isn’t.