![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2018\/05\/KOD-1024x1015.jpg\")
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Simson Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n J. Cole\u2019s \u201cKOD\u201d arrived on April 20 and, while he\u2019s progressed and improved as an artist, his new project regressed towards the end.<\/p>\n While varying styles of instrumentals are constructed, ranging from newly stylized modern trap beats to old-school hip-hop influences, Cole\u2019s narrative is what keeps \u201cKOD\u201d afloat. \u201cKOD,\u201d or \u201cKill Our Addiction,\u201d is based around Cole learning to cope with some of the problems his current generation is also dealing with. For instance, in the album\u2019s trailer, Cole revealed part of how the album developed, \u201cIf I turn on the TV right now, it\u2019s not going to be long before an advertisement pops up that says \u2018are you feeling down? Have you been having lonely thoughts?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Cole tries to grasp the listener consciously. He touches on multiple addictions his generation has been afflicted by and how they might cope with each: technology, drugs, sex and alcohol. But the messages are deeper and, at times, have a double meaning. Cole engages the listener to closely analyze the problems they may also have faced.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, \u201cATM\u201d is a track about the obsession of money and the American dream, and how the dream consumes people. In the refrain he repeats, \u201cCount it up, count it up, count it up, count it,\u201d then responds sarcastically with \u201cCan\u2019t take it when you die, but you can’t live without it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPhotograph,\u201d too, deals with obsession as it’s about a boy\u2019s strong interest toward a girl\u2019s social media account \u2014 though he’s never met her in reality. <\/span><\/p>\n While I get the many interplaying themes, and completely appreciate the diversity KOD strings together, because hip-hop truly needs an army of poets to talk about different issues <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>they\u2019re simply outnumbered by the invaders of trap music <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>at KOD\u2019s core is the current generation\u2019s endless addiction to things. Technology is one \u201cPhotograph\u201d spoken of as well as drug addiction that’s layered throughout several tracks. <\/span><\/p>\n But \u201cKOD\u201d struggles to hold together until the very end. Cole is so invested in topics related to addiction and unwillingness to heal, it’s not something you can re-listen to, and nod your head until the end. Upon finishing, I found it to be a sad case of an endless cycle of our society\u2019s problem with addiction, especially with drugs and alcohol. It’s only right since Cole displays through the songs what he’s undergoing and how hard it is to overcome. I understand that aspect. But it’s not together because there’s an unfulfilling resolution to \u201cKOD,\u201d which could be due to Cole supposedly crafting the album in short time.<\/span><\/p>\n Just as important, the instrumentals became too melancholic for my liking. Even though I dig jazz samples and classic hip-hop rhythms, the beats encoded with the messages didn’t keep me vibing. \u201cKOD\u201d is listenable, attention grabbing through the first seven tracks, but towards the end kept me questioning and hopeless.<\/span><\/p>\n Only two tracks I can say are completely catching me by the ear and will get more than a few replays.<\/span><\/p>\n The piano sounds from \u201cThe Cutoff\u201d are reminiscent of Jay-Z\u2019s \u201cDead Presidents,\u201d an all-time favorite of mine. In the song, he talks about friends he\u2019s cutoff and the stages they went through until their relationship eventually split, something I\u2019ve come to face with recently. <\/span><\/p>\n Second, \u201cATM\u201d has this message and tempo I was hoping the latter half of \u201cKOD\u201d would include more of. As I mentioned earlier, the lyrics are about the sad affair we have with money, but Cole\u2019s beat and flow carries the song. Even though he states things like \u201cwithout it I\u2019m miserable,\u201d he comes in with a force vocally. I love how he\u2019ll say something like \u201cI\u2019m stacking this paper, it\u2019s sort of habitual,\u201d but while doing, there\u2019s a sense that he\u2019s basically insisting to be conscious about the idea of money, as he states with \u201cproceed with caution, I heard if you chase it only results in, a hole in your heart.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I’ve only listened to \u201cKOD\u201d two times over. While a step up from his previous release, \u201c4 Your Eyez Only,\u201d \u201cKOD\u201d was a complete miss when compared to his penultimate \u201c2014 Forest Hills Drive\u201d album, but, like Cole says in \u201cThe Cutoff,\u201d time will only tell who is on his side, or \u201cKOD\u201d\u2019s side. <\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Photo by: dreamville.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Simson Garcia | Sports Editor J. Cole\u2019s \u201cKOD\u201d arrived on April 20 and, while he\u2019s progressed and improved as an artist, his new project regressed towards the end. While varying styles of instrumentals are constructed, ranging from newly stylized modern trap beats to old-school hip-hop influences, Cole\u2019s narrative is what keeps \u201cKOD\u201d afloat. \u201cKOD,\u201d or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}