J. Cole
Album: KOD
Label: Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records
Release Date: April 20, 2018
KOD or DOA
Written by Silas Valentino
Before hearing a lick of J. Cole’s fifth studio album listeners are first greeted by its varicolored and gripping album cover artwork: an illustration of Cole donning a crown and adorned in a king’s cloak. Concealed within his plush robe are multiple children’s faces, some in the act of abusing drugs while others have begun to decay into skulls. A line of text declares: “This album is in no way intended to glorify addiction.”
Across 12 tracks that dare to stare down hip hop’s allegiance with narcotics, his thesis is soundly defended, as is the bejeweled crown that sits perched on top of his head.
Since appearing on the scene in 2007 with his mixtape The Come Up, J. Cole has fashioned himself as a loner among the hip hop elite who doesn’t shy from tackling prickly themes like depression and addiction in his music. He’s brandished himself as a lone wolf by releasing hugely successful albums that forgo the assistance of guest features to reach the top of the charts. With his latest effort, he continues to brandish these loner qualities – minus the addition of his alter ego kiLL edward who appears on a pair of tracks – and the result is J. Cole at his finest: pensive, authentic and critical of his world at large.
“Intro” and several other tracks contain samples of jazz songs from the likes of Norman Connors, Ahmad Jamal and Blue Note label guitarist Kenny Burrell. Sometimes the snippets create a somber tempo like the lonely trumpets in “Intro” or they’ve been utterly reinterpreted by Cole (who produced a majority of the album) into sounding entirely new, like the high-pitched guitar in “Photograph.”
Cole revealed KOD is an acronym with three meanings: “Kids on Drugs” or “King OverDosed” or “Kill Our Demons” – listener’s choice for which one resonates with you. Addiction is a prevailing theme on KOD and he takes aim at a generation of mumble rappers like Lil Pump and Smokepurpp who glorify drug use. “Wow, niggas been crampin’ my style/Blowin’ my high, they want a reply/The number one question is, ‘How?’” he begins in the title track, seeming like an elder statesmen reaching out with a helping hand within an industry that harvests young guns. (Smokepurpp apparently declined such advice and led a “Fuck J. Cole” chant at a show in Atlanta following the album’s release.)
Another issue Cole uses for lyrical target practice is the American tax system which he rails against in the song “BRACKETS.” Beginning with a silly sample of Richard Pryor joking on having financial success to the disbelief of his father, the song quickly loses its comedic appeal with Cole questioning the nature of our government and the way it mishandles our money. With lyrical imagery and a thorny prose he positions his cannon to the top tier: “Better that than letting whack congressman I’ve never seen/Dictate where my money go, straight into the palms of some/Money-hungry company that make guns that circulate the country/And then wind up in my hood, making bloody clothes.”
But the prevailing issue circling around Cole’s mind since his last album in 2016 is drug abuse and he rallies for cleaner living in the standout track “Friends.”
“I wrote this shit to talk about the word addiction/To my niggas… I hope you listening… and…, I hope you listening,” he raps and manipulates a pitch over each name leaving listeners to guess who the three people he lists are meant to be. (Cole’s brother Zach appeared in a YouTube video that analyzes each track and some have speculated that the way he reacted when listening to this moment indicates he’s one of the three.)
To be king means you not only provide for but also protect your people. J. Cole does just that in KOD where he advises his family, friends and fans to renounce drugs amid jazz samples and beatbox rhythms. Nancy Reagan wouldn’t dare embrace hip hop but it’s her loss because drug abstinence has never sounded so effective and demanding as it does with KOD.