Album: 2014 Forest Hills Drive
What has been dubbed one of J. Cole’s (real name Jermaine Lamarr Cole) best ever projects, ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’ is quite comfortably my favourite album by the North Carolina MC and one of my favourites in general from the last decade. After spawning mammoth tracks such as ‘Apparently’, ‘G.O.M.D’, and ‘Wet Dreamz’ to name but a few, the album achieved a much publicised feat of going platinum and eventually double platinum with no features. One of the standout tracks from this album for me and I’m sure many others, is ‘No Role Modelz’. On it, Cole laments the the fake, talentless L.A women and attributes their shallow, materialistic ways to growing up watching witless reality TV stars.
Cole reflects on his upbringing and can’t recall a single role model, a topic that he is not afraid to broach, as evidenced by his musings on a fatherless upbringing on ’03 Adolescence’. Throughout the track, Cole voices his concern for the nature of superstardom and the associated trappings, unafraid to concede that he himself is not immune to corruption and reflecting upon a time when he was a better version of himself (“But then I thought back, back to a better me, Before I was a B-list celebrity”).
“I want a real love, dark skinned Aunt Viv love
That Jada and that Will love
That leave a toothbrush at your crib love
And you ain’t gotta wonder whether that’s your kid love”
The Fayetteville MC expresses his disdain for the current template set for relationships. The slow deterioration of traditional values and what a partnership has come to be leads Cole to fantasise about establishing a relationship akin to that of Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil from the TV series ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ or the series star Will Smith and his wife Jada.
‘No Role Modelz’ is my favourite track from ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’ and one of my favourite songs of all time. Cole’s anthemic chorus, nuanced yet frank lyricism, the way his flow weaves in and out of the beat pockets, the catchy melodies, and the variety he provides in his impassioned and powerful delivery combine to make this song what is it. The interpolation of Project Pat’s ‘Don’t Save Her’ on the chorus alongside the vocal sampling of George Bush’s infamous destruction of the phrase “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” provide levity and variation while Cole mourns the age gap between himself and the strong, virtuous actresses he crushed on as a younger man (“My only regret was too young for Lisa Bonet, My only regret was too young for Nia Long”). Handling the production himself, together with Phonix Beats, J. Cole executes a masterclass in Hip-Hop and social commentary.
A near perfect song.
Musical Musings 