Secret Meeting score: 84
by Phil Scarisbrick
One thing the digital age of music has facilitated is the ease at which records can be surprise-released. Rather than spending weeks or months promoting a record prior to its release, this method occasionally packs more of a punch. After two surprise listening parties held this week, and trailer posted on Thursday, J. Cole today (20th April 2018) released his fifth studio album: KOD. Recorded for the most part while touring his previous long-player, 4 Your Eyez Only, the record is a sparse, pared down hip-hop masterclass.
Title track, KOD, stands for three things: Kids on Drugs, King Overdose, and Kill Our Demons. Seeing the protagonist boast about his drug-selling skills, this introduces us to the album which faces up to the drug problems faced in America.
The off-beat hook of Photograph transitions into verses that see Cole examine the effect social media has on romance and relationship. Comparing its use to drug addiction, he says it is ‘messing with my health.’ Kevin’s Heart sees Cole taking the role of narrator, as he embodies someone in love with drugs. Throughout the track, he also relates the use of drugs to potentially cheating on his partner.
J. Cole rarely features guest artists on his records, so it was somewhat surprising when the track-listing credited two songs as ‘featuring kiLL edward‘. It turns out that this mystery guest is in fact Cole himself, only with slowed down vocals. First appearing on The Cut Off, kiLL edward opens with a hook declaring ‘I know Heaven is a mind state, I’ve been a couple times/Stuck in my ways so I keep on falling down’. The song sees Cole talk about having to cut people off who were close to him. A lack of trust and a feeling of being taken advantage, he realises that he was giving a lot of himself to others with little reciprocation.
FRIENDS once again introduces us to Edward as he takes on the role of a victim of drug addiction and abuse. He is evidence of how controlling dependence to these substances can become. Cole then returns to his own voice as he discusses the reasons why drugs are such a problem. He believes that it could be the type of drugs used, the political climate of the United States, the user’s environment or the influence of music itself. It comes down to many factors faced by the individual, which include upbringing, mental health issues and historical trauma, among others. He concludes that the roots of many of these addictions are planted by childhood experiences, and that the battle lies deeper than simply substance misuse. It is a superb, mature look at an issue which has become endemic in his country, as well as one that appears to be close to his heart.
Regularly going in the face of what is accepted as a hip-hop convention, his achievements – including the Spotify streaming, record-breaking Forest Hills Drive in 2014 – speak for themselves. KOD is just another confirmation that he is earning himself a reputation for being among the finest hip-hop artists of the modern era, and, out of nowhere, he has produced a contender for the genre’s best record of the year.
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