J Cole has slowly become one of the house hold names in rap music, seemingly overnight. But it hasn’t exactly been overnight though considering that he has dropped several mixtapes (including Friday Night Lights, Any Given Sunday, The Warm Up and Truly Yours) before and after his first studio album, Cole World: The Sideline Story. I will say that I haven’t heard all of his mixtapes in their entirety, but some of the tracks are even better than the ones included on Cole World….which was a great album in my opinion. It’s barely been 2 years since the release of his first official studio release and he’s already gearing up for his new release, Born Sinner. His new single, “Power Trip” featuring Miguel. You can check out J Cole’s performance of “Power Trip” with Miguel below. I will warn you….it is explicit though. And in case you don’t know who Miguel is, he’s the one that landed butt first on a screaming fans neck during his performance of his massive hit, “Adorn”. Hopefully she didn’t incur any massive injuries because of his epic fail…..smh. But I digress, lol.
J. Cole also confirmed that his new CD will feature a collaboration from the legendary TLC on the song “Crooked Smile”. I’ve heard a clip of the song, minus TLC’s part, and it sounds really promising. It’s rumored that Lauryn Hill and Frank Ocean will be on the album as well, but that hasn’t been confirmed or denied yet. In regards to the Born Sinner concept, here’s what J Cole had to say about it… “It’s not necessarily a church theme and it’s not really about church. I like my album themes to be metaphors because it gives me the freedom to speak about something else that’s going on in my life, so the Born Sinner thing is not about church, it’s not even about religion. It’s using that as a canvas to get other messages across and that’s what the album will be.” Very interesting…..so basically, we have no idea on what the album will be about. And it was supposedly J Cole’s very own idea to go head to head with another rap heavy weight…..the almighty Kanye West.
Aaaahhhh…the return of Yeezy, Mr. West, Ye or whatever you want to call him. I own every Kanye West CD, but I’m not too sure if I’ll be supporting his most recent release, Yeezus, on June 18th. Yes, you read that correctly. Kanye West’s new CD will be titled Yeezus, not to be confused with Jesus. First Beyonce loses her mind telling the b%$^&#s to bow down and now this. What is the music industry coming to? But you have to give it to him….he’s one artist that knows how to get people’s attention. He performed his song “New Slaves” and another track, “Black Skinhead” on the SNL season finale. That’s millions of viewers alone. Not to mention his worldwide premiere of “New Slaves” projected on 66 different buildings in North America, Europe and Australia.
Artistically, I think Kanye West is so creative that it may be too much for his own good. I don’t doubt that his CD will be great lyrically and musically. But I just think the overall concept is too much to get attention. At what point does the artistry just speak for itself? Knowing Kanye West, I don’t think that he will stick to the June 18th release date either. I have a feeling he may push it up. Or who knows, he may try to flex his musical muscle against J Cole to try to show him who’s really boss. I’ve never heard of any beef between the 2 artists, but who do you think will sell more during the first week of their release? Check out Kanye’s rousing and emotional performance of “Black Skinhead” from the SNL season finale below.
Whose CD do you think will be better? J Cole’s Born Sinner or Kanye’s Yeezus? Oh yeah, then there’s Kelly Rowland’s Talk A Good Game, also set for a June 18th release. May the best man (or woman) win…..
***UPDATE*** 6/3 – J Cole releases “Crooked Smile” with TLC. Check it out. Would you Bump It or Dump It?
