The Immersion: J Cole’s Star is Born Posted by Dharmic X on 04/12/13 | Filed under Opinion, J. Cole, The Immersion

One of my favorite tracks off the lackluster "Blueprint 3" was "A Star Is Born." Jay himself does not really do anything special on this Kanye West and No I.D. co-produced track; it's cool that he's willing to shout out some of his peers throughout his run in the game, such as the Wu-Tang Clan and DMX, but none of his three verses inspire any strong emotion. The highlight of the song, in fact, comes in the closing verse, delivered by a then young upstart from Fayetteville named J. Cole.

The verse was a raw burst of energy that was much needed for the anemic track. Cole's flow sounded hungry and his punch lines were far from elementary. Towards the end of the track, for example, Cole said, “The flow’s cold as a shoulder of gold digging hoes when a broke n… approaches,” far from an unconventional way of phrasing rather conventional hip-hop material. It was one of those surreal "student surpassing teacher" moments that was breathtaking to listen to.



"A Star Is Born" was not the first time I had ever heard oF J. Cole. A couple of months before, one of my close friends had started to rally for Cole, claiming that the kid would become the next big thing. I trusted his opinion to an extent, but I was leery of caving in. He had been on board the Drake bandwagon right before So Far Gone popped off, and Drake really was not shit to me no matter how many times "Best I Ever Had" got played on radio.

But the collaboration with Jay-Z was the first time I ever gave Cole a serious listen, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I heard. At that point, it was time to pour through the entire catalog. Luckily, the entire catalogue was restricted to just two mixtapes, making it easier to catch up.



The song everyone was talking about shortly after "A Star Is Born" came out was "Lights Please." This self-produced track highlighted Cole's main strength: his story-telling. There is not anything particularly flashy about his rhyming technique on this track; he definitely stays in-pocket and structures his bars neatly.

But the way Cole is able to weave this narrative about his interaction with a girl in the bedroom, and how he wants to enlighten her about society's pitfalls and right the wrongs of the universe at the same time feels sincere and heartfelt, amplified by the extraneous details and metaphors he employs on the song. The song shows the contradictions of humanity in a really relatable manner.

To be honest, "Lights Please" was clever at times and very sensible, but I did not gravitate towards that song as much. It was the fact that Cole could really rap that impressed me the most. He displayed this ability with songs like "Simba" and "Grown Simba," songs where he just went in, delivering vicious punch lines while still adding elements of introspection in a stream-of-conscious narrative. Cole’s energy was electric with lines like, “Pardon the interruption, a proper introduction is necessary when your shit is legendary, man, greedy n… wouldn’t let me in the cafeteria, ‘cause they don’t believe, suddenly they Presbyterian.” The lines have a base level of cleverness while expounding upon real-life emotion.



My favorite J. Cole song is "The Badness," a collaboration he did with Chicago's Omen. Ironically, Cole’s verse on that song was one of his own personal favorite verses at the time. It all begins with an incredible introduction: “Believe in God like the sun up in the sky: science can tell us how, but it can’t tell us why. I seen a baby cry then seconds later she laughs, the beauty of life: the pain never lasts.” It is a bittersweet visual image that one can picture vividly. The metaphorical imagery transitions into society, with Cole analyzing race and where he fits in. He brings the analysis home on a personal level, saying “You say I’m easily distracted, I think the problem is I’m easily attracted by the darkside…” The closing line is cryptic, a paradox to match the beginning: “I swear I walk with God but the Devil keep following.”

Omen’s verse is a blistering contrast delivery wise, but he too drops some serious jewels on this track. The opening few bars set the scene: “Feel like I’m riding on a chartered plane of broken hearted pain, turbulence is constant my pilot has gone insane, if I can find a parachute to parasail maybe these parasites of paranoia won’t prevail.” The verse is crisp and smooth, with Omen tackling the issue of love with a solid internal rhyme scheme.



When Cole wasn’t bodying concepts on his own projects, he was obliterating guest verses. Taking the second verse on Wale’s “Beautiful Bliss,” Cole switched up the floor and his ravenous hunger stole the show. The highlight of the verse comes in the middle: “I’m definitely in a class of my own, at dinner with Hov hoping that he pass the baton, he just pass the Patron, Ain’t nothing given, dawg it’s earned if you just living, dawg you learn, I let you n… see the light I’m like the prison yard, I yearn…” The “prison yard” imagery is stunning and unconventional. Coincidentally, Cole has had to scrap for attention since being on Roc Nation - it took two years from that track to finally release his debut LP, "Cole World: A Sideline Story".

J. Cole is not one of those flashy characters that hip-hop is currently being rooted upon. He doesn’t have any outlandish physical traits, nor does he rap about things in a very unconventional manner. But it’s that sincerity, that when done right, is really meaningful. One of his best verses came on "The Warm Up", but its power would only have an effect on me months later…