Article done for J216 Final back in 2014:
In Look Depth to J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive
2014 Forest Hills Drive is more than just the title of J. Cole’s new album; it was his childhood home that he moved into at 13 years old. It was later foreclosed from his mother while Cole was attending St. John’s University. The rapper recently bought back his old home “for closure” and as the first house he’s ever owned. 2014 Forest Hills Drive Fayetteville, North Carolina is where Cole’s dream of rapping began. The timing for the album could’ve have been much closer; Cole barely made his deadline of keeping the album in the year 2014.
No singles were supposed to be released before the release date Dec. 9th, 2014 “I want you to hear the album straight through, front to back,” Cole said via Instagram post. He did, however, hold a contest, in which the winners would be invited to his house to hear the album. The only fans could hear it prior to its release. The album happened to leak online the week before it came out.
Cole’s main message with this album is finding true happiness. With that being said, they’re still a few songs on the album that were made to be hits, with meaning in them, but are made to be listened to at high volume. “That Hollywood sh*t is fake happiness,” Cole said in a Dreamville promotional video. He went on to say the he hoped he didn’t get caught up in it, and moved on quick enough. “The real sh*t is permanent and forever, the artificial sh*t you got to keep chasing it.” In the albums outro Note to Self, which is Cole thanking everyone who helped made his goal happen, Cole said, “Only one thing matters, and that’s your happiness. And the only way to get to that happiness is love. Real genuine mother f***ing love.”
In his song “Love Yourz” Cole raps, “There’s beauty in the struggle/ ugliness in its success/ hear my words and listen to my signal of distress.” Goes on to say how he may not have had a lot growing up, but compared to others in his neighborhood, he shouldn’t be complaining looking back. He went on to say he thought “being broke was better,” meaning compared to what he has now, he’s more grateful for the little things he used to have. Cole ends his last verse with, “Always gon’ be a whip that’s better than the one you got/ always gon’ be some clothes that’s fresher than the ones you rock/ always gon’ be a b**ch that’s badder out there on the tours/ but you ain’t never gon’ be happy till you love yours.”
“03’ Adolescence” is a song that is where Cole talks about his senior year of high school and the choices that he made back then. In the song he brings up a conversation he had back in the day with a friend that happened to sell drugs, but Cole looked up to and wanted to sell too. But Cole explains how his friend told him not to look up to him, and how he looked up to Cole. “Listen, you everything I want to be, that’s why I f*cks with you/ so how you looking up to me, when I look up to you/ you ‘bout to get a degree, I’m a be stuck with two choices/ either graduate in weight or selling number two,” Cole raps (in the prospective of his friend.) Knowing that Cole was destined for big things, he didn’t want to let him get caught up in selling drugs; even though he didn’t have a way out, he wouldn’t allow Cole to be stuck in that environment.
After Cole talks about the conversation with his friend, he flows into talking about how he came up. “I felt ashamed to ever complained about my lack of gear/ and thought about how far we done came/ from trailer park to a front yard with trees in the sky,” Cole raps. He then goes on to thanks his mother’s strength and acknowledges the tough times they went through, but says how he’ll use that for his motivation to never settle for what’s handed to him.
Cole talks about the foreclosure of his home in his song “Apparently”. At the time of the foreclosure, Cole was 18 years old and miles away from home, attending St. John’s University in New York. “But the only thing like home I’ve ever known/ until they snatched it from my mama and foreclosed her on the loan/ I’m so sorry that I left you there to deal with that alone,” Cole rapped. Goes on to admire his mother’s strength at that time and how over the years he felt he acted “so selfish”. He keeps with his personal relationships in the first verse rapping, “I can tell by how I treat you with my girl/ damn, she so selfless, but she put up with my way/ because she loves me like you do/ and though it don’t always show I love her just like I love you.”
Cole spoke on about his relationship with his girlfriend and mother in the albums promotional video. “I had to put blinders on for a long time and focus on career, career, career. What suffers in the meantime is my relationship with my mother. My relationship with my brother. My relationship with my girl,” Cole said. Continued to say how they all recognized how busy he was, but he feels like no matter what he needs to a better son and all the things. He brings it back to how all the people who have been with you through it all, good and hard times, provide you genuine love and happiness.
“Note to Self” is the outro of the album and is almost 15 minutes of shout outs with a sample looped in the background. He does begin it with singing for the first three and a half minutes before diving into the shout outs. Thanking everyone who helped made the album possible and promoting the few rappers he has signed to his Dreamville label. Then calls out a few of his peers, first for respect, and then to say there isn’t a “king of rap” but they should all lead by example for the next generation coming up by coming together. He also talks about his thoughts on the situation happening in Ferguson. Cole ends his album saying, “Until next time, but I don’t know when that’s going to be. But one love baby!”
Cole plans on moving out of his house soon after the release. In an interview with Complex Magazine, Cole said he has a plan to have families move in everyone two years and have them live there “for close to rent free”; hoping that those families will be able to leave in a much better financial situation than they were coming in. Knowing what it was like to have a home foreclosed on, he doesn’t want anyone else to deal that kind of devastation.
With Cole everything is bigger than music with him, that’s why I enjoy listening to his music and watching his interviews. Brining everything full circle in his life, going back to his childhood home, I truly think there will never be a more influential album in rap. There is always something more than words being said, it’s about the emotion within the words. He’s giving us a piece of his childhood, his life in giving us this album, all we got to do is truly give it justice by listening to his story.
Work Cited
2014 Forest Hills Drive. Dir. Dreamville Rocords. Perf. J. Cole. Dreamville Records, 16 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RtDlXRkPuE>.
Scott, Damien. “Man Of The House.” Complex Magazine. 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014. <http://www.complex.com/covers/j-cole-interview-2014-cover-story/>.
