# j cole, an underappreciated but talented musical artist. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306 "2018-03-09T23:02:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/1 "2018-03-09T23:02:25Z")
IMO, [j cole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCGV26aj-mM&list=RDEMLnYgIZdQ3hhjQv-gdzK5Jw) is a very underrated artist whose music is hard hitting, soulful and at times, quite insightful and self-aware. I don’t consider all rappers to be artists but I definitely think j cole is an artist. Which is what I attribute to his relative obscurity compared to more mainstream, popular hip-hop stars. [_She knows_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYdaQJzcAcw&list=RDEMLnYgIZdQ3hhjQv-gdzK5Jw&index=4) and [_Apparently_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRaFMlZ1YHA&index=2&list=RDEMLnYgIZdQ3hhjQv-gdzK5Jw) are two of my favorites but I like most all of his music. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/2 "2018-03-09T23:10:46Z")
“Obscure” may be too strong a word to describe him. He is somewhat well-known. But definitely underappreciated. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@MonkeyCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyCat)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/3 "2018-03-11T17:37:05Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > “Obscure” may be too strong a word to describe him. He is somewhat well-known. But definitely underappreciated. Hey! Not the first time I wish I wasn’t dating you so my response would bear weight. Ah well. Pretend I made some witty comment in the third person about knowing something. ---
**Author:** ![Osano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@Osano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osano)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/4 "2018-03-11T21:02:42Z")
The warm up and Friday night lights were both fantastic albums, top to bottom. I still have them in my rotation. But his next two LP’s especially born sinner were big turnoffs. From this point he was biting classic lines from all the heavy hitters from the 90s but most of his fans are too young to notice the plagiarism. Ive read his bios and know he is well-versed in the classic rap artists but his “homage” was more lazy IMO. He completely lost me on Forest Hill Drive. WTF was that? Frank ocean he is not, that was a bit too advant garde for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/5 "2018-03-11T22:43:30Z")
> [@Osano](#): > > The warm up and Friday night lights were both fantastic albums, top to bottom. I still have them in my rotation. > > But his next two LP’s especially born sinner were big turnoffs. From this point he was biting classic lines from all the heavy hitters from the 90s but most of his fans are too young to notice the plagiarism. Ive read his bios and know he is well-versed in the classic rap artists but his “homage” was more lazy IMO. > > He completely lost me on Forest Hill Drive. WTF was that? Frank ocean he is not, that was a bit too advant garde for me. It just goes to show how tastes vary. I consider Forest Hill Drive, if not his best, then definitely in the top 2 (with FNL being the other). ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/6 "2018-03-12T03:54:59Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > It just goes to show how tastes vary. I consider Forest Hill Drive, if not his best, then definitely in the top 2 (with FNL being the other). [https://youtu.be/imgYGfH2yNM](https://youtu.be/imgYGfH2yNM). I mean, how can you not love this? ETA: sorry, not this stupid lyric video. I had a rare couple of drinks. Cut me some slack. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2018, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/7 "2018-03-12T09:47:46Z")
She Knows is great hip hop - very Kendrick in its life on the streets, dealing with your family sort of way. I like the bed track with the descending piano riff. I don’t dig into hip hop - ingesting all the lyrics (if they are good and worth it, like this) is a combo of reading poetry, solving a crossword, and taking lessons in a foreign language given the slang and references. Thanks for the heads up. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-cole-an-underappreciated-but-talented-musical-artist/810306/8 "2018-03-12T20:14:24Z")
I posted before, in a roundup of modern hip-hop, some comments that were rather dismissive (something along the lines of that he’s the acceptable highly-commercial thoughtful/pseudo underground rapper, which I stand by), but I have found myself enjoying more of his stuff the more I just happen to hear it.