Cole seems content with being the polarizing figure that he is, and you have to appreciate his artistry. Whether or not others agree with it is fine for him. Cole did on 4 Your Eyez Only was reach to his core fans and made an album that they can appreciate. Sure, 2014’s Forest Hills Drive was able to tap into a broader audience. Cole is far from boring and it’s not necessarily “woke.” This is a black man from a poor background talking to other poor black men about changing our lifestyles before it is too late. And it’s fair that people will assume that he is boring or that this is some type of “woke” music. Cole took this old Kanye West model on music and ran with it. It comes across as depressing because it is only at the end of the subject’s life that he realizes what it truly means to be a “real nigga.” Kanye West has this famous line on the song, “Through the Wire”, in which he raps, “But he wasn’t talking about coke and birds / It was more like spoken word / Cept’ he’s really putting it down.” J. For example, the ending of “Foldin’ Clothes” where Cole raps, “Niggas from the hood is the best actors / Gotta learn to speak in ways that’s unnatural / Just to make it through the job interviews / If my niggas heard me, they would say / Damn, what’s got into you.” His music always felt like it was meant for people who live in the middle - focused on bettering their life to make it out of poverty, but understanding that they may be too hood for the corporate world.

Trying to balance that existence takes a toll on a young man, and J. But, if you exist in that world, then his music hits you like a ton of bricks, especially for young black men who are leaving their homes and venturing out into a space that is not necessarily accepting of them. If you live outside of the world that he is speaking about, then you can definitely feel the music and vibe with it. Cole’s music has always reached out to a specific audience, though. In an almost nine-minute ending track, the young man, now dead, is sending a message to his daughter so that she can understand his story and why he is now gone. He now understands that he lives for her, but he cannot leave the drug life behind him. He has a daughter and his whole stance on what it means to be a man changes. He starts doing little things like moving to a better neighborhood in order to build a better life and “Foldin’ Clothes” - things that are not necessarily associated with being a “real nigga” in the Black community. On “Immortal”, the young man that he is rapping about is bragging about his status in the streets with lines like, “Real niggas don’t die” and “If they want a nigga / they gonna have to send the swat team / I’m going out like Scarface in his last scene.” However, the young man falls in love with a woman and it changes his entire life. It starts off about a young man who is on the streets, drug dealing and hustling.

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