After months of anticipation, the debut album, “Cole World: The Sideline Story,” by Jay-Z’s signee J. Cole, finally hit retail shelves and leaves fans wanting more.
Cole describes “Cole World: The Sideline Story,” as a story about his rise to stardom since being signed to Jay-Z’s label, Roc Nation, in 2009.
The subtitle of the album, “The sideline story,” comes from his emotion of feeling like a sideline player for his favorite basketball team, just waiting until the coach put him in the game, Cole said.
But the rapper quickly established a fan base in 2007 when a string of his original mix tapes surfaced on the Internet before being signed to Roc Nation.
His unique play with words created a story-teller approach to his music that most could relate to in their own lives.
With speculation that Cole would lose touch once releasing his own album, “Cole World: The Sideline Story,” proved critics wrong.
The album is a solid release of music that brings Cole’s old hits together with a new style and focus within his new tracks.
With an estimated 225,000 albums sold nationwide in the first week, Cole has established himself as a mainstream rapper no longer on the industry’s sidelines.
Although many of the tracks have been released by Jay-Z in 2009, a lot of the new tracks will have listeners hooked.
The song, “Dollar and a Dream III,” is one of the highest notes for the debut album as it describes the emotional struggle Cole experienced as a rapper and depicts his journey of success through the industry.
The song is the third track in the series, “Dollar and a Dream,” which was released on Cole’s first mix tape titled, “The Come Up,” in 2009.
Like “Dollar and a Dream,” fans will hear the same underground rap style in the titled songs, “Sideline Story,” “God’s Gift” and “Rise and Shine.”
Cole’s use of different musical styles in his debut album will have listeners bobbing their heads to his tracks.
As he experiments with dubstep–a musical genre made of strong drum and bass lines–and electronic music, Cole’s beats are catchy, carrying a new dimension of sound.
Although Cole mentioned in many interviews that he would prefer not to have featured artists on this album, he does the opposite and shares a few tracks with some big-name artists; the charted single “Can’t Get Enough” features Trey Songz along with a collaboration with Missy Elliot in “Nobody’s Perfect, and with Drake in the titled track, “In The Morning.”
The debut album has exceeded many critics’ expectations and may be recognized as a “classic album” for years to come.
And, on top of it all, his album might be the new face of this generation of hip-hop music.
