Album Review: 2014 Forest Hills Drive by J. Cole

Let me start this review by updating you on how I listen to my music. Years ago, around 2004 or so, I subscribed to Yahoo Music. It was a great service. For $5 a month you could stream, download to MP3 players, etc. It was a great deal and a great service. At some point they got bought by Rhapsody and so I have been with Rhapsody ever since. That's why I use the Rhapsody rating method in my reviews.

Well I have now dropped Rhapsody. I was using both Rhapsody and rdio and we decided to drop Rhapsody in favor of rdio. Mostly because rdio has an app available for our Roku and Rhapsody does not. Rhapsody has also dropped their star rating system and rdio doesn't have one, but I'm going to continue to use the Rhapsody system in my reviews since I've been using it for so long.

OK that being set aside let's move on to J. Cole.  This is an interesting album and worth a listen if you are interested in rap.  It's the kind of album that I'm always saying we need more of in rap.  It's personal and reflective.  It has smart moments and funny moments, and its a full album moving from song to song and taking you along with it.

All that being said there is something missing for me.  In the end I just don't find it lyrically very interesting.  That's critical especially on an album like this that is so focused on the artist.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.

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