J. Cole has a gift in turning tears into teaching tools and KOD is a concise, leather-bound audiobook of invaluable life direction goals.
King Cole is back, and he brings with him a beautifully constructed album about redemption, finding true love, and figuring out what’s important in life. KOD is a masterpiece.
The North Carolina rapper goes from strength to strength with his powerful fifth album.
On his latest record, J. Cole continues to be a beacon of social issues, allowing KOD to be a vessel that addresses different states of addiction, both direct and indirect, and its effects on society.
While there are moments where Cole comes off more as a condescending high school principal than earnest older brother, KOD is an overall strong effort that connects of emotional trauma, mental health stigma in the Black community and the real problem of drug glorification.
With only an alter-ego for company, J Cole casts himself as rap’s moral compass with this masterfully pared-back fifth album.
Cole doesn’t sacrifice any inch of rhythm or melody while detailing his cautionary tales. It’s clear he’s mastered the art of hiding medicine in candy.
He doesn’t finesse his points; he douses them in gasoline and blows them up. And that’s great! We could all do with more fiery explosions in our music. Sometimes Cole gets wacky, but thankfully he’s never dull.
As the value of Cole's witticisms, and the intellect required to decrypt full meaning of his verses, continues to be debated, the increased strength in his clear-cut writing evinces promise of greater work ahead.
K.O.D. magnifies Cole's current status as a deliberate outsider, well versed in pop music's machinations even as he refuses to take part in them.
On his new addiction-themed album, KOD, he loves to suggest that people should abstain from things—smoking, drinking, online dating. Sometimes, he’s persuasive, but just as often, he simply seems self-righteous.
From the onset of the album, we know what we're in store to receive. Whereas DAMN. finds Kendrick Lamar twisting and turning through wickedness and weakness, wrestling often through the same issues found here, Cole delivers it straight.
J. Cole brings a lot of heart and salient points on KOD, but it's yet another mixed bag.
He’s always had a misguided obsession with the state of popular rap music, but KOD inflates that obsession into something bordering on pathological, if not rabid fulmination.
He cements his place in hip-hop history with this one... as the corniest dude in the game.
Power, greed, money, Molly, weed
Percs, Xanny, lean, fame
And the strongest drug of all...
...the morphine I took to lessen the physical pain that this album caused me
Yeah J. Cole's music in this era is probably some of the worst music he has made. Goddamn this shit was BORING.
Cole has this quality about him where he's doing everything correct, but damn is it the bare minimum? He has good intentions with his lyrics, though barely written exceptionally. He has flows, though delivered so damn flatly. The skeletal beats is not a sustainable model to create music, he needed to add much more layers and dynamics to his craft to be lauded more seriously as a great artist and he's simply not great. This may be his sleepiest record he's dropped, that borders on preachy and ... read more
1 | Intro 1:47 | 63 |
2 | KOD 3:11 | 71 |
3 | Photograph 3:38 | 61 |
4 | The Cut Off 3:57 | 63 |
5 | ATM 3:36 | 78 |
6 | Motiv8 2:13 | 60 |
7 | Kevin's Heart 3:20 | 77 |
8 | BRACKETS 5:15 | 69 |
9 | Once an Addict 3:17 | 76 |
10 | FRIENDS 4:17 | 65 |
11 | Window Pain 4:46 | 76 |
12 | 1985 (Intro to The Fall Off) 3:10 | 81 |
#3 | / | Associated Press |
#3 | / | Complex |
#32 | / | NME |
#39 | / | DJBooth (Hip Hop / R&B) |
#43 | / | Billboard |
/ | Vibe |