J Cole: Born Sinner

Hip hop in recent years has highlighted the journeys that artists have taken to get to where they are today. The upbringings and life stories that these rappers and performers convey through lyricism and spoken word are just a glimpse into what they have had to do to get where they are. From the cluster of artists that have used this, more and/or better than their peers, comes one person who has epitomized the concept of bettering one's situation and life. Jermaine, or J, Cole has taken rap by storm, most recently with his 2014 album Forest Hills Drive. Despite the success of this piece of brilliance, I believe that his previous work, Born Sinner (2013), reflects the precedent of desire and passion in regards to having a beneficial change on the self. In other words, J Cole presents that the best person to change your life for the better is yourself, and to never stop the grind, so to speak. This ideal spans the rap world, and is a common position and topic that lives in today's verses and lyrics. Born Sinner attests to the ways that artists, especially the ones that eventually become successful, have a drive to be something greater.

The title Born Sinner, a quote from Notorious BIG's "Juicy," is a stamp on everyone as human beings, saying that we are destined to sin even before we enter this world. Sin is a touchy topic, especially in the lens of religion. Despite the thematic influence of gospel choirs, sermons, and references to biblical verses and stories, Cole's intention and understanding with the word sin is to relate it to mistakes and failures that deteriorate the the journey that each of us are on. J Cole doesn't want religion or church to be the centerpiece of this album. Born Sinner is a statement and call for people to accept defeat and screw ups and instead use them to push on. The album is composed of some of the stories and examples of mistakes that Cole has had or experienced on his way to the top. The main point that he makes is that he is still on top, even after the stuff he's been through and this fuels his further ambitions. Cole's ambition is defined by his emphasis on dreams. Within the album, the main dreams he has involve money and the desire to make a name for himself amongst the fans and the society of rappers that live atop the game. Money and ambition usually bring different circumstances when brought together. In a review of the story The Red and Black, Francisco Fiorentino picks out that ambition is some kind of metaphorical monster that has the capability of eating away a man's wellbeing and humanity, and that ambition isn't possible without a moral goal. Fiorentino targets ambition as negative, yet it brings up the position of what constitutes as a moral goal? For J Cole, his purposes are clear, and moral, for what he wants to do and accomplish. His family and his future are his goals that stem from moral desires to help others, whether they are close to him or even remotely involved in his push for the top.

Money continues to be a theme in music and performance, and it, as mentioned above, plays into ambition and progress immensely. The lure of money and capital success is most definitely a draw for most artists in the hip-hop. J Cole brings up money in Born Sinner quite a number of times, but rather than support the unceasing desire for it, he takes a prosecuting position on the matter of wealth and complacency. In Rich Niggaz, Cole talks about how he can't stand people who have financial security that look down on others because they seem to be less fortunate or successful than the wealthy. Cole doesn't want to be that guy. It looks to me like he wants to become something different and encourage an equal playing field amongst all people, not just artists. In a 2015 piece by Terri G. Seuntjens, dispositional greed serves as a result of ambition and desire. Greed is explained as a figure, meaning it can be described as a number that can be determined for each person. Seuntjens states that greed is a heavy contributor to economics and the social structure. On Born Sinner, J Cole's interlude Mo Money is structured to model the social totem pole from rich to poor. J Cole wants greed and conceit to disappear and in turn objectify the artists in hip hop that use wealth as a basis to compare themselves to others. Cole uses money as a tool to improve the current state of his own situation and change the way music culture thinks in modern society.


In addition to money, desire plays a genuine role through relationships/romanticism. Cole is invested in his mistakes, as well as in his success within relationships. Songs like Power Trip, She Knows, and Sparks Will Fly all carry the message of romanticism, but not just as a concept: J Cole stays locked in on desire and ambition, saying that these relationships have either held him down or gotten him up to where he is now. Every experience is a piece of his story, and it creates a grand picture in which Cole is showing the world his progress as an artist and human. The emotions that Cole brings to his journey are reminiscent of the passion he has to attain success. I think Power Trip really brings out Cole's passion for his life and the significant people in his life. In the song, he actually becomes so passionate about a girl that he would straight up kill someone to protect her (and he does that in the music video). As brutal as that is, the overall theme here is that he just wants to get better and better in the rap community and stardom is his main priority. The process of pushing through rough patches in emotionally invested occasions comes back in Sparks Will Fly, the last track on the 21 song album.  Jhene Aiko features and serves as the woman in a relationship that is facing hard times, but J Cole and Aiko believe that the best way to solve the problems is to stay together and fix it. J Cole's mindset represents this through the whole album: that keeping things the same is the best way to persevere and get through bad things going on, in life and in music.

Before Born Sinner, J Cole rapped songs that had a basketball theme to them, forming the origin of Cole's focus on progress. Born Sinner has a completely new vibe to it, without a streamline story to follow. Like I said before, this album doesn't have a religious connotation, but what Cole said in an Elle interview was that "[he] put[s] a lot of God into [his] music, but not because [he's] super religious. There are a lot of demons in [his] music, too. [He] acknowledge[s] both (Amey, Elle)." I enjoy this word play, not because I think he's a lyrical genius but because these metaphors play into his motif of the journey to success. He has faced highs and lows, who take the shape of heavenly figures and the damned monsters who either build him up or attempt to break him down. J Cole uses his drive and desire to attain things he didn't think were before possible. This mentality is spreading amongst artists, and J Cole is a sound model for others to take inspiration from. Areas of heavy rap influence are full of underground rappers looking to reach the same places J Cole and other mainstream artists have been, and J Cole's point is that all of them are capable of it if they can start taking things into their own hands and to have the passion to succeed. In South Florida, for example, artists aren't concerned about getting to the top for the money: "they don't necessarily desire notoriety or fame. It's the artistic challenge" (Bhasin, Naples Daily News) that gives them the drive to become the voices everyone hears on the radio or in a club or at a sold out show. Rap is evolving past the materialism and becoming focused on the material IN the verses, over the beats. J Cole and a few other rappers are bringing this out, and it's making hip hop so much more enjoyable for the listeners and fans.

J Cole's transition from Sideline Story to Born Sinner is symbolic of his growth and his journey from where his career began. Born Sinner was really a confirmation of his talents after his impressive first album. Cole brings a more mature and real album that presents a more subjective concept than his previous work. It's relative to the first album I reviewed, and how Childish Gambino takes his music as a journey and path. From humble beginnings in Fayetteville, North Carolina to tearing up stages worldwide, J Cole has embodied what it means to be driven and ambitious, all to accomplish great things for yourself and those around you. He is creating an example, that others in the business could take a lesson from.

Due to copyright issues, there isn't a video to the full album on Youtube, so here is a link to Youtube playlists of the album. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=j+cole+born+sinner+full+album

Works Cited:

Amey, Katie. "Hot Topic: J. Cole." ELLE. Hearst, 17 June 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Bhasin, Sabina. "Special Report: Local Hip Hop Artists Fueled By Desire to Make It." Naples Daily        News. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Fiorentino, Francesco. "Ambition." New Left Review 90 (2014): 79-88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Seuntjens, Terri G., et al. "Dispositional Greed." Journal Of Personality & Social Psychology 108.6 (2015): 917-933. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

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