Guest Blogger: Alex N1

One artist that has recently become one of my favorite people to listen to is J. Cole. He is a rapper from Fayetteville, North Carolina. All of his music is hip/hop, but some songs have a softer feel to it, not quite like R&B, but different from the same “hard” rap songs that are most common today. Most of his songs will tell little stories about segments of his life, or things that he has seen another person go through. They are mostly stories about hard times that he has had to conquer. They give his music more of a real feel to it that really makes people think about how tough life can be for someone that isn’t living in the best neighborhood, or someone that has lost a loved one. It can also give comfort to someone listening to his songs that has gone through the same things that he is writing about; they can listen to his songs and hear about how he was able to fight through, and stay strong during tough times, so even when there isn’t anyone there physically to help them, his songs can aid them in whatever they’re going through. Something pretty unique about him is he makes quite a few references to God in his music as well, such as in his song, “Show Me Something” he says, “I’m asking if you can hold me down lord, be my umbrella-ella-ella in this down pour.” In these lyrics he is asking his lord to help him get through a hard time his is dealing with. One rapper that is pretty similar to J. Cole is the one and only Tupac. In J. Cole’s song, “Show Me Something” he says, “I sit and reminisce on them ni**as no longer here and how I used to hit the mall and y’all was always there,” he also says, “I’m a man, so I cannot let them tears fall” and then in Tupac’s song, “Life Goes On” he says, “it’s time to bury another brother, nobody cry.” They’re both talking about people they are close with losing their lives, but to try to stay strong and not shed any tears. A lot of people that have posted on blogs about him, such as the blog on Entertainment Weekly which is talking about his hot new song, “Who Dat” are saying that J. Cole is the future of rap and that he “kills” every verse he’s on, in other words, he puts together very good lyrical verses that exceed most verses from rappers that have been rapping for twice as long as him. I could not agree more, everything he raps about has some type of meaning, most rappers now-a-days will rap about all of the fancy cars, or houses they have, or have a reference to them smoking marijuana, they really are rapping about the same thing in every song and there isn’t a true meaning present in their lyrics, other than, “I have a really nice house, cars and smoke a lot.” Also the passion J. Cole expresses in his music is very clear, he is writing music because it is his love and he wants people to know the struggles he’s been through and the long, tough road he has traveled down to get to the destination he is at right now. I would definitely recommend J. Cole to anyone that is a hip/hop fan; even someone that doesn’t normally like rap should listen to a few songs, I really think his music has a spot for almost everyone.