The album “4 your eyez only” by J.Cole was published in 2016 with 10 songs which have all made it into the top 40 of the US billboard top 100.
The album focuses on the life of a young man that was a close friend of J.Cole. the album displays the struggles of the life of a black man growing up experiencing racial prejudice and violence and also displays the good parts of his life like finding love and having children, showing that not everything in life is tragic. In the lyrics it is stated that the album was made to tell the life of the man to his daughter that he left behind as it was stated in the last track of the album that the man died due to a gang setup. The man knew he was going to die and decided not to drag anyone else into it as it was what he did for himself and in his words ” he had to deal with the consequences of his actions”.
The Tale in the lyrics
the opening track “for whom the bell tolls” seems to refer to the bells in a funeral as the man was awaiting his inescapable demise.
in the song “change” Cole raps about how change can only be made from the inside as people need to change to cause a change and in this track he raps about seeing the news of his friend’s murder on the news.
other tracks also reference the man selling drugs in an attempt to escape poverty even with Cole trying to steer him away from it.
The tracks “folding clothes”, “she’s mine pt.1″,”she’s mine part 2” describe how the man found love and had a daughter whom have changed his perspective in life in trying to change himself for the better which in the end unfortunately did not work for him as he passed away due to a setup as described by the last track “for your eyez only”.
Reading this blog was interesting since j cole is one of my favorite artists. Also Ville Mentality is a personal favorite track of mine on this album besides 4 Your Eyez Only.
I’m not really a J.Cole listener, so reading about the stories behind the tracks of an album of his was quite new territory for me. I really enjoy it when artists go a little deeper than the surface level in their music.
I enjoy J.Cole’s music and I really enjoyed his latest album “The Off-Season” and my favorite track on it was “my life”. I did not listen to “4 your eyez only” and after reading this post, I will definitely give it a listen.
I have listened to a couple of songs of “4 your eyez only” as I more than often listen to J. Cole, but never really connected the dots of how the whole album is like a story beginning with the first track and ending with the last one. It was very interesting to know this information as J. Cole is already pretty well known to go deeper with meanings in his songs.
I’ve previously listened to J.Cole’s unique music, but I had no idea about the depth behind his lyrics and style of art. This album demonstrates that such a style is carefully crafted to appeal to the ears and evoke sincerity.