J Cole's KOD Album Kills On Delivery
The KOD album broke the record for most streams in the first 24 hours sitting at a staggering 64.5 million, just one million over Drake’s Views. The title has 3 different acronyms all having to do with the drug epidemic surrounding the youth. J.Cole has evolved from his former upbeat “radio songs” to sounds that have more history and lessons behind them, becoming one of the only activist rappers to date.
Kids On Drugs, King OverDosed, and Kill Our Demons were the meanings given by the rapper with the album cover illustrating kids with drugs and a skull behind them, inferring the cover is saying drugs are initially killing the youth and the new generation of rappers aren’t making anything better with their music.
“But I love to see a black man get paid
And plus, you havin’ fun and I respect that
But have you ever thought about your impact?
These white kids love that you don’t [care]
‘Cause that’s exactly what’s expected when your skin black
They wanna see you dab, they wanna see you pop a pill
They wanna see you tatted from your face to your heels”
These lines from the song 1985 are speaking to the young rappers today and how all of their music revolve around drugs. Along with their lyrics, the fact that they’re bringing in millions of dollars while they’re under the influence make kids want to do what they’re doing.
“We live in a society where all this drug use [is] normalized. It’s encouraged and promoted,” according to Cole in a recent interview. Rappers of today are encouraging kids to run to drugs instead of facing their problems head on.
J Cole explains how Kendrick Lamar’s most recent album, DAMN, planted the seed for the creation of KOD which is why he refused to have any features. He also explained his reasons behind the wide range of topics his album touched like the younger generation of upcoming rappers of today.
“The most popping rappers all are exaggerated versions of black stereotypes. Extremely tatted up, colorful hair, Flamboyant, Brand names. It’s caricatures, and still the dominant representation of black people” said Cole.
In addition to 1985, another song that listeners would be intrigued to hear is the eighth track called Brackets. The song spoke on taxes, politics, and how it seems that no matter how much he gives or how much the government takes doesn’t really make a difference with the school system.
Window Pain, which gave a skit depicting young kids describing dramatizing scenes they’ve witnessed growing up, basically portrayed how the majority of children growing up in an impoverished environment resort to drugs and gangs.
Recommendation- The album is a classic banger. The album isn’t for the simple minded, “hypebeasts“ of the world. It’s for the open-minded individuals who see music beyond words but can paint a picture and can relate to what’s being addressed in the song.
