“4 Your Eyez Only”
Fans of North Carolina rapper J Cole,like myself, fell in love with “2014 Forest Hills Drive”. After that album was released, fans craved more new music. The Cole drought continued for two years, everyone was waiting for more J Cole. When J Cole announced his new album fans rejoiced, eager to quenched themselves with J Cole’s new music. J Cole’s new album encompusses his thoughts on life, death, his legacy, and what he wants for his daughter, Nina. While having such a deep meaning the album still manages to rival “2014 Forest Hills Drive” as far as its beats and musicality. This album is great because of the deep lyrical meaning. We will be looking at this through three points.The songs; “She’s Mine Pt.1,” “Foldin Clothes,” and “She’s Mine Pt.2”
“She’s Mine Pt.1” is the fifth song on the album and is about how meets his girlfriend and falls in love.
The songs starts with the saying of the phrase “I’ve never felt so alive” repeated four times. Calling into light that only when he is with her he feels alive. The songs goes with J Cole telling her all about his days as a youth, the absence of his father. Finishing with with how growing up on the streets with gangsters all around him changing him into the way he is the way he is and the reason opening up is so hard for J Cole. She makes it easy because Cole truly loves her. There love is even more apparent in the eighth song on the album, “Foldin Clothes”
J Cole raps in the second verse “I woke up this morning Feeling like the best version of me. I walk into the living room and see you just napping.”He raps about how he wants to become a house man. Then goes on to fold clothes and do things around the house for her, making her job easier. This song may not have the best beat on the whole album but it is one of the most deep.I can literally hear the change in J Cole as he goes from a kid that grew up on the streets into a husband. He goes on to say “Baby I want to do the right thing. So much better than the wrong things.” In just that lyric he threw away his life of crime and gang violence for the family and husband life. Then his family is about to get much bigger in “She’s Mine Pt.2”
In this song J Cole and his wife welcome their daughter Nina into the world. Cole is taking fatherhood serious in the first line J Cole spits “Needin’ me, Wantin’ me, givin’ me a chance to feel special.”He is talking about both his wife and daughter in this line how they rely on him to keep them safe and to put food on the table. In this song he dives into the responsibilities of being a father. He wants to be a really good so that he doesn’t end up like his own father. Who left him at a very young age. This song is my favorite on the album and for good reason. “She’s mine pt.2″ is the deepest song on the whole entire album.
Cole’s album is great because of three songs the first “She’s Mine Pt.1,” secondly Foldin Clothes, and finally “She’s Mine Pt.2”. After years of waiting for new music.Fans of J Cole finally got what they needed, a deep meaning album. In this album J Cole grows from a rapper just doing it for the money into a man that wants to be with his family. He does some serious growing up and that what makes this album so good.This is personally my favorite of J Cole’s four studio albums. I can’t wait for his next one.
