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J Cole coming in hot. I’m not always the biggest fan of his songs, but he always kills the feature.
Haha, you're making him sound like the new Meth
Honestly, I kinda feel that way. I rate J Cole super high, probably in my personal top 5 all time? Maybe just top 10 but still.
Damn, that's super harsh. Method Man, had a classic (according to some) and but couldn't for the life of him follow up his initial success. Ultimately what cost him was his energy. To most it sounded like he didn't know how to write an album. Some would say he didn't really know how to write a song and it hurt him. But at the same time, the music he enjoyed making was what got the crowds amped. He needed to lean into his charisma and spit smooth playful raps over even smoother beats but he wanted jump up, in your face beats...
But J. Cole is a whole different animal. He writes songs and albums excellently, Kids on Drugs aside and now, writes features even better. I get that he may not be everyone's cuppa, but he should certainly garner respect for his record.
In comparison, you look at Drake, who is very hit or miss and in fact suffers from trying to cater to his audiences rather than put out a cohesive project. In fact sonically, the one with 21 Savage is probably his best in terms of cohesion. That said, when he hits, he hits.
Another comparison would be Kendrick who is very good at cohesion, but some would argue that's his downfall as sometimes his tracks fail to stand up on their own without the other album tracks. Objectively speaking, Mister Morale isn't a great album, it's for the best part very average, but it's Kendrick and so people are forgiving.
If you did a versus with Mister Morale versus The Off Season, Cole wins. I say all that to say this, in terms of the big mainstream, Cole is clearly in pole position right now, some would argue he's even about to start lapping rappers. That's a million miles from Meth.
Sorry for being so long-winded.
Half the shit I post here is long winded as fuck, so all good haha
I might have been a bit unfair to Cole. You make good points. I think what it comes down to for me, it is the gap between his features and his albums I guess? I like his albums, they put him solidly inside my personal top 10. But if I could somehow only judge him based on features....he has got to be top 3 easy.
And that probably isn't fair. I bet it is a lot easier to write one fire verse compared to a whole song or a whole album. I can't write a bar personally so what do I know. I would like to point out though, I like Method Man. Tical is a complete classic to me and I'd be willing to argue about 4:21 honestly. Just that Method's best work wasn't on his solo stuff.