J. Cole

[Throwback24]

His first tape was The Come Up, I'd recommend checking out: Simba, Quote Me, School Daze, Can't Cry. Hell, I'd recommend downloading the whole tape. The reason I enjoyed it as much was because this is the one of the few artists I've seen grow and evolve right before my eyes. Then you've got The Warm Up Trailer, which was of course a prelude to The Warm Up which you've already gotten a chance to listen to.

As an artist he can captivate you with his flow, can write a song which is one of the least appreciated things imo today, stays true to himself with his content and has a voice to match. When people mention J.Cole it's always in regard to how good of a rapper he is compared to all the fresh men, for me, he's a great musician period and I'll lump him in with all my favs.

And as odd as this sounds, his love towards basketball probably has something to do with why he's one of my fav. artists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3oVU2himG0

Just thought I'd link you to the trailer. I'll stop rambling. He's due to blow and if Jay some how manages to fuck this up, wow is all I have to say to that. Losing my Balance and Lights please are both single worthy songs, all he needs is the right promotion and I'm sure his core fan base will be there every step of the way. As for The Warm Up, what it is an album not a mixtape. Although the year isn't over and is rather premature to say this, I def. have it in running for album of the year.

[James R.]

^God damn... you should do his promotion cuz you just made me wanna youtube him and see what he's all about. I'll be droppin my verdict on here once I check 10 or more tracks including the aforementioned suggestions.

EDIT:

So I been checkin his shit pretty much nonstop and I like him. He has a decent flow and pretty good lyrics as well. His song over that dipset beat "I Really Mean It" just came out so hard I couldn't ignore it. Probably my favorite of the songs I've heard. Any way either of you could upload his mixtape(s)?

[Throwback24]

Just posted a link to 'The Come Up' in the download section of site James. And if you plan on sporadically going through his catalog I'd highly recommend checking for these first:

Can I Live (The Warm Up)
Simba (The Come Up)
Grown Simba (The Warm Up)
Royal Flush (The Warm Up)
Lights Please (The Warm Up)
Dead Presidents (The Come Up)
Dead Presidents (The Warm Up)
Dreams (The Warm Up)
School Daze (The Come Up)
Song for the Ville (The Warm Up Trailer)
Losing My Balance (The Warm Up)

Different flows, different subject matter, not in that order by that would be my introductory mixtape to someone who wanted to know what J.Cole was about.

Seeing as how Back to The Feature is also due to drop today (Wale):

Featuring production almost exclusively from 9th Wonder and guest appearances from Talib Kweli, Royce Da 5′9″, Joe Budden, Daniel Merriweather, Bun B, K’Naan, Mike Posner, Jean Grae, Big Sean, J. Cole, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Joell Oritz, Curren$y, Young Chris, Tre (from UCB), Dre (from Cool & Dre), XO, Torae, Kingpin Slim and the list goes on!

Barring a push back, this should be a good tape. Figured I'd post it instead of creating another seeing as how it's J.Cole related (kind of)