North Carolina native, J.Cole, paints a picture in everyone’s mind with his number one selling album, “2014 Forest Hills Drive”. In this album he looks back to the beginning of his life and where his past decisions have led him to. Amazingly, this is Cole’s second double platinum album with no features. His first double platinum album was “Work Out” which he dropped in the summer of 2011. His sophisticated lyrics go greatly with the fresh subtle beats surrounding them in both of these highly praised albums. The first time I listened to this album, was when is first released in 2014. Me and my best friend walked around for hours listening to this album. My three favorite songs from this album are “Wet Dreamz”, “No Role Modelz”, and “A Tale of 2 Citiez”. These three songs best describe his teen years and his introduction to the real world very well.

My most favorite song on this album is “Wet Dreamz”. Cole’s story telling skills are put on showcase in one of his most popular tracks in this album. He tells the story of a nervous virgin having his first awkward adolescent hookup. J Cole makes it so easy for the listener to visualize how awkward it would be in their mind. Throughout the song he goes from having a “so innocent” relationship, to turning to a more loving relationship.

My second favorite song of J. Cole’s other very popular tracks on this album is “No Role Modelz”. His opening line in this song is “First things first, rest in peace Uncle Phil”. The line following was “You the only father that I ever knew”. Uncle Phil is Will Smith’s uncle in the tv show Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The main character went to go live with his aunt and uncle Phil. That one line has a lot of meaning for this song; if he looked up to a tv show character it shows how few people or “Role Modelz” Cole had to look up to growing up. The song continues with Cole looking back through his memory for people who he could easily rely on and strive to be like. “No role models and I’m here right now, no role models to speak of. Searching through my memory, my memory I couldn’t find one”. This line is about his realization of all of the obstacles and mountains that he has had to climb in his childhood and early adulthood to get to where he is now.

Cole’s deepest and most popular track on this album, “A Tale of 2 Citiez” is about his introduction to the cruel, real world. He grew up wanting to be rich, “Since a youngin’ always dreamed of gettin’ rich”. He is now starting to realize how unlikely that is for most people; he will have to work harder than others to achieve the success he has always dreamt of.

All in all, this is an amazing album and I always look back to that one night walking around with my best friend. J. Cole paints a picture in the mind of the personsitting behind their phone screen listening to this album. “Wet Dreamz” is about a young adolescent having their first awkward sexual experience. “No Role Modelz” is about Cole’s bad childhood with no father or role model to look up to. Finally “A Tale Of 2 Citiez” is about his introduction to the unforgiving real world. He his deep lyrics throughout this album correspond perfectly with his popular 21st century beats. I give this album an overall 9/10. A few of the track on this album I’m not a huge fan of, but overall, this album is super good. The three songs I chose are both over the top and have super good meaningful lyrics.