Review: J. Cole – Friday Night Lights

Rating – 10 out of 10 [Editor’s note: upon second thought, and deliberation, the staff opted to change the review to 10/10. Thanks to our, Twitter fam for helping finalize the decision!] J Cole is the first signee of Roc Nation – and might be turning into Jay Z’s best investment.  J Cole’s latest mixtape Friday Night Lights was released this past Friday to a hype unseen of a free mixtape in almost two years.  The mixtape was almost impossible to find for a time – in an era where download sites are as popular and diverse as skittles.  Friday Night Lights lines up to be J Cole’s third mixtape – the others being The Come Up (2007) and The Warm Up (2009) – with all of the previous being critically acclaimed pieces  of music.  With Friday Night Lights J Cole has filled up the Game breaker – creating fervor of excitement for his debut album, Cole World.  Friday Night Lights features 20 tracks of Hip Hop in its purest form.  Pleasing every fan from purists to mainstream.  Featuring little to no features – only 3 on the main album (aside from the bonus G.O.O.D Friday release “Looking for Trouble”) – including production credits, J Cole’s mixtape is an excellent flexing of the musical ability J Cole has.  It starts with the tranquil self entitled entrance track “Friday Night Lights”, which ends with the thesis for the entire project – “What good is being “The One” when you’re the only one that knows it?”.  Cole represents and pays homage to the years of Hip Hop preceding him.  “Enchanted”, one of the brightest songs on an already pearlescent mixtape, borrows the epic chorus off of Tupac’s classic, “Hail Mary”.  While staying true to the words, Cole manages to twist meaning into the opposite of what it is meant while still capturing its essence.  With one of the few features Omen delivers one of the best verses on the album – a rare overshadowing of Cole- something Cole himself does to everyone else.    “Before I’m Gone” is a strong, epic, ride song – spat with such hunger and meaning  – speaking of the times and struggles of everyday life.  Cole has the swagger of an intelligent college kid with the hunger and spark of a young vagabond roaming the streets.  “Villematic”, “2 Face”, and “Higher” are all songs which make up a strong midsection – it is easy to become lost in this mixtape.  With the large amount of songs, it is surprising to see J Cole hold his own as the entire tape completes itself.  J Cole’s rhyme book is deep and large as each track is laced with complex metaphors, similes’, and alliteration – reminiscent of his Boss, Jay Z.  “Premeditated Murder” explains his ambitions as he predicts his current and rapid ascent into the game.  Cole is confident and it works – it is almost his best aspect.  Songs like “Back to the Topic”, “See World” and “Farewell” just give off the image of a young and dangerous rapper.    The highly anticipated Drake and Cole collaboration, “In the Morning” left none to be desired.   The song is a great showing by both artists – each artist having come into their own – discussing a situation which might only come with the job.  While this song worked, it does not seem almost as close to as what could have come out of collaboration between the two.   Friday Night Lights is a mixtape with very few blemishes and faults.  Cole nicely nits together a very interesting precursor to his upcoming album “Cole World” and it holds its own as one of the most complete mixtape of the year.  Is he “The One”?  Well we do not know that yet – but Friday Night Lights definitely has us paying attention.  Jacques Morel is the creator of www.IFuxksWithThat.com. A journalist, interviewer, and personality he is a College Senior, he attends St Johns University in Queens.