Sandwiched between, “She Knows” is perhaps one of the few tracks that needs more than a few spins to earn a place – even then, it is probably going to be a target, but it does lighten the mood musically a touch (before it gets dark pretty quickly). Just after lies “Rich Niggaz” – almost on par, as he explores money and the various attachments, good and bad. “Runaway” is one of the few tracks that genuinely has a Pac feel to it: it’s superlative. Cole doesn’t explicitly preach about religion, instead favouring an approach where he assigns a sin to each song and explores it with a framework. The superb interlude “Mo Money” (another peak) precedes “Trouble” – and the religious overtones become even more obvious. The female-friendly “Power Trip” featuring leg chopper of the moment, Miguel, is a single that fits excellently within the structure of “Born Sinner” – the last verse of the previous song leads cleverly into it, and it’s not by any means dumbed down. Following a telecommercial/sermon, “LAnd of the Snakes” has an “It Was Written” feel to it (actually sampling OutKast), and it’s very much a highlight after a few spins, as you get to know the artist through a combination of his detailed diary entries and clever couplets. Yet it gets off to a great start, with the stirring “Villuminati” – Cole really sets his stall out, stating that “It’s way darker this time” before the strings kick in, that famous Biggie line is sampled and the MC really goes at it. There is arguably a lack of big moments here, with few tracks that could turn into crossover events – not commercial crossovers, as that plainly isn’t the aim here at all, but touchstones for the hip hop community to transmute into universal references. To his credit, Cole generally manages to personalise the sins into songs, and formulate them into a self-produced mid-90’s throwback joint that more or less works very well as a late night mood album to vibe out to, not to mention a headphones joint. COLE called “Pray.” So it could have felt like we were retreading familiar ground. However, literally six months ago, The Game dropped his album “Jesus Piece” which attempted to cover much of this too – it even had a track WITH J. “Born Sinner” as a theme is subtly identifiable throughout most of the songs, with references to preachers, Adam and Eve, liberal sprinklings of choirs and some well-balanced confessionals. Cole improves upon “Cole World” – it’s ambitious, a more unified sound is present throughout, lyrically he’s spitting like the underground Cole that earned his following in the first place, and it’s certainly vastly less marketed (cynically) towards the females. Cole has learnt from his bland debut album, and whilst it is a step in the right direction, can “Born Sinner” be considered a classic or even anywhere near 2006’s “Doctor’s Advocate” (which still bumps pretty damn hard)?
But the common ground between them is clear.
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Cole likes to produce his own music, whereas The Game knows how to get good beats for his budget Cole is a touch better as an MC in certain respects The Game at his peak was arguably more charismatic. They sound eerily similar at times they both namedrop insecurely about legends/mentors they both know how to put together a good album both also seem convinced they are the new Tupac Shakur.
Cole comes across as this decade’s version of The Game.
Make no mistake: this little tête-à -tête is not in the same league. Since then, Kanye has gone from strength to strength, with 50 treating the rap game as a mere passing interest. It’s fair to say that the limited advance offerings from either artist have failed to match the commercial might of the epic media takeover of West vs. Cole returns with his sophomore, lining up his release date to go toe-to-toe with Kanye West’s “Yeezus” (both albums are due to drop on June 18th). Following his somewhat bland debut “Cole World: The Sideline Story” J. There is no doubt that the art of making an album has taken a backseat over the last decade – however, a few artists still take this shit seriously, and whilst tastes vary, we’ve certainly received excellent long plays from Kendrick Lamar and Drake, in particular. We used to get classic social commentary nowadays, it’s more like social network comments.
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