Dec 9, 2016

Yeah. but the beat Is so f---ing boring. You put the album on. first three trackss just f---ing go then it's like what in the f--- just happenned?

 

Dec 9, 2016

So I show this girl I'm talking to the album and first thing she asks me is.... "who does he have featured on deja vu and neighbors, whoever they are sound better then him"..

 

Dec 9, 2016

So J Cole played MGSV?

 

Dec 9, 2016

leave her fam

 

Dec 9, 2016

s--- I gotta hear this now, Punished Cole by the sounds of it. What's the go with the split personality thing this album sounds like he really got inspired by MGSV tbh

 

Dec 9, 2016

The more I listen to this album the more I like it. It won't have super replay value but I think it's one of his best full body of work. My 15 year old cousin hit me up from Florida while in class to discuss each song lol

 

Dec 9, 2016

Hold up. Neighbors is clearly about Cole. I know there's some concepts here that I don't fully get but I'd hesitate to just call it a straight up concept album.

 

Dec 9, 2016

No credits in the album book? WTF

 

Dec 9, 2016

I feel like he's trying to show the parallels of him and his friends life just the difference is cole made it out of the ville and that ville mentality. So at points it seems to switch up the pov

 

Dec 9, 2016

why they cut my asian n----- playing that soulful organ tho

at 11:00 in the eyez docu

 

Dec 9, 2016

the bass that cole was playing at 15:15 fire too

would have rathered a song building off that then folding clothes lol

why cole always drop these previews and s--- if he aint gone use the s--- smh

 

Dec 9, 2016

and i don't get why they cut the song Nate Fox (chance's producer) was working on at 25:15

"tell me how i really feel about you" ... then it plays all the way until 26:30

s--- sounded like it had mad potential

that was like a major part of the docu and then its not even nowhere to be found on the album

 

Dec 9, 2016

the song right after that where the girl playing the violin sounds like it had some potential too ...

i don't get it, why can't we see the making of songs that are actually on the album

that would be interesting too no lmaoo

 

Dec 9, 2016

I thought the violin was in immortals? Idk I thought I heard that and the trumpet part of the doc in the album somewhere and the bass cole played is in neighbors

 

Dec 9, 2016

more the actual beat that u hear her playing over in the background

 

Dec 9, 2016

J. Cole hasn’t spoken about the meaning of his new album 4 Your Eyez Only, but the title track repeatedly asks a important question:



For your eyes—do you understand?
For your eyes—do you understand me?
For your eyes—do you understand?
It’s not immediately clear what Cole means. But a close listen to the album reveals that there is an underlying narrative that connects the album’s tracks, and explains the title.

At the center of 4 Your Eyez Only is the murder of a friend of J. Cole’s named James McMillan Jr. who got caught up in the streets. On the song “Change,” Cole reenacts his funeral, and raps about seeing his murder reported on the news:



I made it home, I woke up and turned on the morning news
Overcame with a feeling I can’t explain
‘Cause that was my n----- James that was slain, he was 22
Whether it’s fiction or not is unclear, but the entire album seems to be a retelling of McMillan’s life to the young daughter named Nina he left behind. Cole explicitly spells this out on the album’s final track, when he reveals that McMillan told him to communicate his story to his daughter:



Write my story down and if I pass
Go play it for my daughter when she ready
And so I’m leaving you this record for your eyes only
Although this isn’t revealed until the very end, the whole album sets up this theme. The opening track “For Whom The Bell Tolls” is a reference to bells ringing at a funeral. On the second track “Immortal,” Cole assumes the perspective of a young man—presumably McMillan—who sells drugs as a means to escape poverty, despite the risks:



Kingpin n-----, put wings on a crack fiend
If they want a n-----, they gon' have to send a SWAT team
And I’m goin' out like Scarface in his last scene
A legend, what that mean—?
On the track “Ville Mentality,” Cole includes a spoken interlude from a young girl, presumably McMillan’s daughter:



My dad, he died—he got shot cause his friend set him up
And I didn’t go to his funeral—and sometimes when I’m in my room, I get mad at my momma when she mean to me
And she—
And she say, clean up—I say—
I get mad, I slam my door and go in my room—
And then, I get mad and I say, “I wish my dad was here”
A few of the albums tracks—like “Foldin Clothes” and the two “She’s Mine” songs focus on love, fatherhood, and their ability to make a man reconsider his priorities in life. This is a theme that likely applies to Cole’s own life, but also fits in with the McMillan narrative. On “She’s Mine Pt. 2,”Cole raps about the birth of a child inspiring him to turn his life around:



You are now the reason that I fight
I ain’t never did nothing thats right in my whole life
He finally lays everything bare on the album’s final song “4 Your Eyez Only,” revealing that McMillan’s biggest fear is his daughter coming home from school to see he was killed. Tragically, this fear came true:



My worst fear is one day that you come home from school
And see your father face while hearing ‘bout tragedy on news
I got the strangest feeling your daddy gonna lose his life soon
And sadly if you’re listening now it must mean it’s true
McMillan’s daughter is the one thing he’s proud of in life, and he wants Cole to tell her his story since he won’t be there to see her grow up:



Just call it visions from the other side
I got a feeling I won’t see tomorrow
Like the time I’m living on is borrowed
With that said, the only thing I’m proud to say I was a father
Write my story down and if I pass
Go play it for my daughter when she ready
And so I’m leaving you this record for your eyes only
Don’t you ever scratch or disrespect it
As the album ends, Cole explains that despite his life of crime—a life spurred on by the systemic oppression and lack of opportunity that Cole denounces throughout the album—McMillan was a good man because he loved his daughter. By referencing the story and saying it’s for her eyes only, Cole reveals that album is an allegory for McMillan’s life, told to his daughter from his own perspective:



Nah, your daddy was a real n-----
Not ‘cause he was hard
Not because he lived a life of crime and sat behind some bars
Not because he screamed, “f--- the law,” although that was true
Your daddy was a real n----- 'cause he loved you
For your eyes only
It’s unclear if James McMillan Jr. is a real person, or simply meant to be an avatar for the millions of young men who have met a similar fate. In any case, it seems like Cole wants to tell their stories and become “the voice of the voiceless,” as Dreamville president Ibrahaim Hamad tweeted just hours after the album dropped.

 

Dec 9, 2016

album desperately missing a soul sample b-----r

partly joking cause someone posted saying there happy it didn't have that lol but id say one song like that wouldn't have hurt ... cole don't use Canei Finch enough imo

 

Dec 9, 2016

I think Neighbors might be bout cole himself.

heard he live in Cary NC, and its a lot of white people in cary, real nice city. think its the safest city in the state.

in neighbors he says

"Welcome to the shelter, this is pure
We'll help you if you've felt too insecure
To be the star you always knew you were
Wait, I think police is at the door

someone on rapgenius said cole has a spot in nc that he calls the sheltuh its a house / studio

them white people in Cary probably think Cole a d--- dealer

 

Dec 9, 2016

first listen, I enjoyed.
This album is beautiful, that's the first word that came to my mind when I finished.

4 your eyez only title track was also crazy good, that last verse gave me chills man.