Album Review: J. Cole – “2014 Forest Hills Drive”

By: Daniel Gerichter (@ZenDonut) –

J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive

Jermaine Lamarr Cole has come home. At least that’s the theme on his ambitious new album 2014 Forest Hills Drive. Cole is a rare talent in today’s hip hop scene, having made accessible, personal, street-conscious albums since his 2011 debut The Sideline Story. And all this while signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label.

Cole has dispersed his verses in tracks by heavy hitters like Drake, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar. In fact, Cole was one of Drake’s slew of surprise guests at Toronto’s OVO fest this past August. Traditionally, an artist that’s as nestled in the upper echelonof hip hop’s recordings as Cole is would have some (or all) of those artists do him a solid and show up on his record. Not so with 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

Cole treats his new album as a personal, from-the-soul affair. The album’s title comes from the North Carolina home he grew up in – a framework for his childhood and adulthood to duke it out. On the album’s first track, “Jaunary 28^th”, Cole bounces between boasts of his industry stature and rhetorical questions about the world he lives in. He asks “What’s the price for a black man’s life? / I checked the toe tag – not one zero in sight/ I turned the TV on, not one hero in sight/unless he dribble or fiddle with mics”. Verses like this speak to the duality of J. Cole’s existence as well as his day-to-day life does. We’ve seen him partying with Drake, but we’ve also seen him on the streets demonstrating against police brutality – an action his comrades have been noticeably absent from.

To wit, J. Cole is probably the only emcee alive who can find depth and substance to an already weighty album with a song about boners and teenage sex fantasies. “Wet Dreamz” puts Cole back in high school, in a surprisingly vulnerable story about a crush, virginity, teenage machismo and all the pride and humiliation that comes with it. “If I told the truth I knew that I’d get played out, son / haven’t been in pussy since the day I came out one”. Cole puts us in his adolescent state of mind with ease, balancing humour, hormones and hindsight and honesty all within a topic that’s usually handled gratuitously in his genre. It’s no small feat.

Back to the now: as complex as Cole manages to make teenage life seem, it’s literally kid stuff compared to the picture he’s painted of his modern life. In “St. Tropez” Cole uses a visit to the city itself (mentioned only once) as a metaphor for launching into the life he’s been immersed in and the hesitation and terror of leaving his past behind. He laments “She asked me if I’m scared to fly / to tell the truth I’m terrified / I never been that high before /very bad reason not to go / terrible reason not to go”. It’s a moody track, mostly sung, that once again puts you squarely inside Cole’s head. Instead of focusing on the unlimited heights and excess this life offers him, he’s stuck in his own self-consciousness and doubt. Cole never once denies that this is what he wants, but constantly questions the personal cost.

On 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole is the sole attraction. While we know every artist worth his or her salt would jump at a chance to collaborate, Cole’s not feeling that right now. What results is a rarity in hip hop; an honest, profound statement by one man about his life. And as richly produced as the album is, it never feels overblown or overproduced. With 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Cole leads the pack of emcees that are bringing the genre back to what made it great to begin with: storytelling, struggle and self-awareness. Here, he sacrifices a string of prefab club bangers for brevity, integrity and honesty; a battle between his diamond-encrusted fantasies and his soul, with the latter walking out the winner.

Essential Tracks: “January 28^th”, “Wet Dreamz”, “St Tropez”, and “No Role Modelz”