95 North. . . The Newspaper

J. Cole's most recent album,  KOD , arrived at an interesting point in pop music: Lil' Pump and the other lil's are dominating the headphones of teenagers, filling in a cultural void with blue hair, Xanax, learn, and generally ignorant behavior. Such is the long-told story of youth. 50 years ago the Beatles were wearing their mops, smoking marijuana, and perfecting the devils music. They said they were bigger than Jesus. People burned their records. Old timers complained about the hippies. Those hippies grew up, and complained about the gen-X kids who were fed a steady diet of malaise, Beavis and Butthead , punk rock, and Mad Magazine . Those kids grew up and had millennial's- a generation of spoiled, but poor kids who whiz through life on apps, killed the traditional music business, elected Obama, and deferred their student loans. J. Cole, born in 1985, is a millennial, and perfectly typifies the general experience of a millennial in many ways. His first album,...

I've been on a hip-hop kick for a few months now, and since it doesn't seem to be abating I might as well discuss two songs from my two favorite rappers: 1. "Tale of Two Citiez": J Cole There's been plenty of chatter about our favorite curmudgeon J Cole's identity as a rapper rooted in boredom, tedious seriousness, and "eh-ness" . That's why we like him. Whether he's rapping about folding laundry, enjoying almond milk, or braggin' on his success and fame only to later chastise himself for doing so, J Cole is a relatable, reliable MC who makes his own beats, and yes, went platinum with no features . He's on a solo journey. Cruising the rap-sphere all alone, Cole often spins introspective tunes like "Tale of Two Citiez"- simple documents that chart his easily traceable, and relatable internal thoughts about growing up without much money and then having it. In typical Cole style, in the end, he asserts that what goes u...