re: New J. Cole Album "4 Your Eyez Only "

Ab-soul album is doooooope. Love wifey VS wifi. Good call

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Yeah. He's fine, but we are in a freaking renaissance of good hip hop right now

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Got any suggestions? In my opinion only a small fraction of hip hop albums that come out these days are worth a shite. I really really don't think "renaissance" fits and J Cole isn't just "fine" compared to the vast majority of shite these days imo. He's basically universally loved by people who like the classic bars over beat hip hop that tells a story.

Isaiah Rashad
Chance the Rapper
Saba
Towkio
Joey Badass
Action Bronson
Sampa the Great
Kendrick Lamar
AbSoul
Mick Jenkins
Vince Staples
Noname
A$AP Rocky
Black Milk
Jay Electronica
Shabazz Palaces
Atmosphere
Wara from the NBHD
Malcolm London
Ka
Skepta
Run the Jewels
BJ the Chicago Kid
Joey Purp


And I like J. Cole, but I dispute that he's universally loved. In most of the stuff I read, he's often seen as a milquetoast rapper sticking to tradition (which is fine). One music site recently compared him to "comfort food," which I think is pretty apt. I like the shite, but I don't see it as breaking any ground (in the way that someone like Kendrick does... breaking ground while also nodding to tradition).

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Maybe it is "comfort food" I duno. I just get tired of listening to someone's album and hearing half of it filled with features, stupid interludes, and beat emphasis over the actual words of the song.

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I can definitely feel you on that. I probably shouldn't come off as dismissive of J. Cole as I was... I actually really like his work. It's sort of similar to how I was with Summertime '06 last year in that I recognized that TPaB was probably a better album, but all of the artistry got in the way to me... and I actually ended up listening to Summertime '06 more in the long run. J. Cole is similar. Really enjoyable and great to listen to and definitely talented.. maybe just not as artistically ambitious as some of the others.

And as for Renaissance: I just mean that there's a lot of really good, interesting hip hop out there right now (I guess there always is... as a decade ago it was the Minnessotta/Midwest "backpacker" scene carrying that torch), and that it's overshadowed by the complete autotune mushmouth shite that seems to get constant airplay.