Unless you are new to the site, you are already quite familiar with how the “First Impressions” review format works.  An opinion of a project is presented by a number of critics, featuring their primary thoughts on the project in question.  Hit the jump to check out the thoughts of The Koalition’s Profex as well as my own on Jermaine Cole’s latest offering, 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

Profex (Charles)

This album is a fairly sudden announcement with Cole having been ghost for the majority of the year. No high profile features, no single, no marketing push save for the sole video dropped two weeks ago. Whether this is the result of the closing chapters with Columbia Records, an understanding that the artist benefits more from a grassroots promotional run, or a drought in major label hip hop releases this year, buzz has increased immensely in anticipation for 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

With zero features to distract, Cole’s rhyming, singing, and structure remain under a huge microscope. Thankfully, this is his strongest performance thus far in all of those respects. Nevermind the absolutely dope production that blankets the album, Cole delivers. The subject matter is often familiar considering Cole has been pretty vocal about his upbringing in previous works, but the performance hasn’t always meshed entirely.

“Role Modelz” is a great example of this. Though we find the artist treading very similar waters as he speaks on the women he’s encountered since becoming “famous”, no other time has the message come across more clear (or entertaining) than in this song.From the evolution of Cole’s production (or his ear for it) and song structure to even the recycling of some themes, everything before was building up to this project. The execution is what counts and it sounds like Cole crafted something he’s truly proud of. That sense of pride comes through in the listening and I found no blemishes. Salute to that.

Favorites: January 28th/No Role Modelz

Rj (genius)

After the trend popularized by Beyonce’s 2013 self-titled release, J.Cole has decided to follow suit, unleashing his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive with little promotion and no single release.  For all its flaws, his latest full length features some of his most honest work to date.  While staking his claim among as rap’s elite on “January 28^th”, it is unquestionably the dreary first hand point of view of the gritty Fayetteville streets (“A Tale Of Two Citiez”) that corroborate just how deliberate Cole’s methods were while crafting this album.

Unfortunately, Forest Hills Drive fails to travel beyond the city that raised him.  The album is essentially a rehash of the familiar topics that graced his previous albums as he spends much of the hour long album reliving his come up in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  Revisiting tales of his teenage years, including “03 Adolescence” and the hilariously frank “Wet Dreamz” are no more than crutches for Cole.  For a kid that would have given everything to make it up out of Fayetteville, his music continues to be shackled by the city that raised him.

Drive does have its moments, however.  “Love Yourz” contrasts the effects (or lack thereof) his newfound riches have had on his happiness and reaching the conclusion that money truly is not everything. “Fire Squad” features a scathing take on hip hop’s renovation by white artists, and then fumbles at the 1-yard line by subsequently stating “just playing”.  His hesitancy to “pull the trigger”, so to speak is just another reason his music rarely stands out amongst his peers, the chief problem plaguing his studio albums.

He’s too comfortable to truly grow as an emcee.  Forest Hills finds Cole’s nostalgic eyes fixated on where he has come from with little growth on where he is beyond the jazzy, 90’s influenced production, which is not helmed by Jermaine for once.  While honest and forthright, his material has grown stale.  J.Cole remains the young cat out of “Fayettenam”, imprisoned by the city he once seemed so desperate to escape.

Favorites—Apparently/A Tale Of Two Citiez/January 28^th