Cole World: The Sideline Story (commonly shortened to Cole World or The Sideline Story; stylized as Cole World - The Sideline Story) is the debut studio album by American rapper J. Cole.It was released on September 27, 2011, by Roc Nation and Columbia Records, with distribution from Sony Music. The album is his first studio release, following three successful mixtapes. Cole’s sideline days are over. With his first album Cole World: The Sideline Story, the Fayetteville, North Carolina MC solidified his position as a bonafide rap star touring the world with hit records and then earning himself a nomination at the 54th Grammy Awards. Now with his sophomore LP Born Sinner scheduled for a.
℗ 2013 Columbia Deluxe two CD edition includes bonus tracks. 2013 release, the second album from the Grammy-nominated rapper. Born Sinner is the follow-up to his best-selling Cole World: The Sideline Story, released in 2011. Includes ‘Power Trip’ (featuring Miguel) and ‘Miss America’.
Meet J. Cole. Originally born in Frankfurt, West Germany but automatically a U.S. citizen since his father who is an American soldier that was stationed out in Europe. Later as Cole grew older, his father separated from his mother & caused the family to relocate to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole began rapping at age 12, his main influences were mainly from Nas, Jay-Z, Tupac, Eminem, Biggie, Andre 3000 & Canibus. Cole grew up in a difficult household where his mother who was severely heartbroken from her husband leaving her caused an unlikely presence within the household. She became an addict of alcohol which heightened her anger & frustration to burst out at her children. Trouble at home didn’t stop Cole from being a hard working student at school. Cole graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA in 2003 & graduated from St. John’s University in New York in 2007. Life wasn’t always easy for Cole after leaving St. John’s University. Cole experienced a slippery slope that created a fault to be employed & be financially stable. Jermaine went through multiple jobs but he decided to take his chances & become a rapper. That was his dream. In 2007 Cole released his first major mixtape, The Come Up which received a high amount of attention. His second release with the undeniably classic mixtape, The Warm Up (2009). This projectearned him his spot on Jay-Z‘ label Roc Nation. The mixtape paid homage to HOV on several tracks. After being signed to the label, Cole decided to put out one more mixtape Friday Night Lights(2010) that granted him the right of debuting his 1st album release Cole World- The Sideline Story. J. Cole released his debut album on September 27, 2011. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album was lead but it’s lead single “Work Out.” The album sold 218,000 copies in it’s first week of sales but has since gone platinum. Initially the album captures a personal reflection of Cole’s life. Mainly the content captures the issues he had with relationships, family conflict, fame & the attempt of being successful. The course of the production for the album was mainly handled by Cole & the legendary producer himself, No I.D.The Side Line Story received positive reviews & was actually one of most anticipated albums of 2011. Jay-Z was also highly praised for signing one of the best artists since Kanye West.
Track 1. “Intro” The intro track is a small introduction to Cole’s album. A soft, mellow piano plays smoothly in the background. Cole spits a small short rap. Although in the beginning Cole has a conversation with a couple of friends about the day he got signed by Jay-Z.
Track 2. “Dollar and a Dream III” One of my favorite Cole tracks of all time & one of my favorites off the project. The third & final installment of the “Dollar and a Dream” trilogy. After years & years of starving in a hopeless world that many saw, Cole was driven by his hunger to make it to the top. He didn’t give a fuck what was in his way, the man was going through too much to be held back. His determination lead him to become more faithful. Literally it’s the first song off the album & Cole just spills his heart out to where all of his organs have ruptured. The production on this track is very dramatic but I love the build up. This was a perfect way to reflect off the concept of Cole’s sense of hope.
Track 3. “Can’t Get Enough” (Feat. Trey Songz) Taking a very different approach that turns on the kill switch of the album. Cole shares the pleasures but troubling addiction of him being a sex fein. He changes his tone on this song by showing a more immature & young hard headed Cole that brags a lot. I can tell that he was trying to tap into Jay-Z’ pimp gimmick. Although I love the latin sample on this track, very festive & colorful that amuses your ears.
Track 4. “Lights Please” One of the more smoother tracks of the album. Cole shares the views of the world & it’s illness. A big part has to do with ignorant women. This track has a pretty engaging beat that gives that nice rhythm to bop your head to. This is the song that caught Jay-Z’ attention & gave Cole the green light. Originally “Lights Please” was first introduced on Cole’s second mixtape The Warm Up (2009).
Track 5. “Interlude” Continuing the story about the day that Cole got signed (Reference to track 1.) Cole describes this joyous moment that all paid off, but while in New York he was driving & got pulled over. He immediately knew what is was for because his licence was no good. That got him a night in jail but he wasn’t worried because he was going to be out the next day. For a minute he really thought he would lose the deal that Jay made already.
Track 6. “Sideline Story” One of the tracks that paved the way for album. Jermaine just lays three memorable verses about how he managed to “get up off the sideline.” The point here is that Cole wants to put his city (Fayetteville) on the map.
Track 7. “Mr. Nice Watch” (Feat. Jay-Z) The title is a reference to Jay-Z’ classic jewelry line “Uggh, nice, watch.” Cole brags the entire song really that causes a bit of a drag. He throws in those growls that you’d hear from Kanye. However he tries to brag like how Jay-Z back then when Jay had his pimp gimmick active. My question is why is this beat sound so scrambled? There’s a few patterns that sound nice but a bit annoying to hear because of Cole growling in the back. Jay had a pretty decent verse that made up for the song to be listenable. This kinda represents like a song that got cut off of Jay’s The Blueprint 3 (2009). I’m saying this because this is the time that HOV was experimenting his sound at the time.
Track 8. “Cole World” Cole talks about the status that rappers have about being original or just being another imitator. He clarifies that there isn’t that much originality in the rap game no more. He credits himself to be one of only relevant rappers in the game left. I give Cole that, this is true.
Track 9. “In the Morning” (Feat. Drake) From Cole’s third mixtape Friday Night Lights (2010) Cole basically explains the ways he pleases his woman & tells other men that if your lady is horny in the morning, you just need to lay in your bed all day & just give it to her. Drake fits so smoothly on this track as he paces the laced piano instrumental just right.
Track 10. “Lost One’s” One of the best tracks off the album. This track is basically about abortion. The story is about a young couple that find out that there having a child. What puts a fault between the two is the man doesn’t want the kid because they have no money or support to raise the child properly. The woman has hope for their child saying that only time will tell & that you shouldn’t kill something that is yours because of something you can overcome. What’s really creative & makes it heartfelt about the song is that Cole raps from the perspective of the man, woman & as a narrator.Abortion has always been a big topic to debate, shit if I was having a kid,I would keep it if I didn’t have anything. I would devote my life to that seed.
Track 11. “Nobody’s Perfect” (Feat. Missy Elliott) You know one of those songs that make you feel welcomed even though you’ve done some things in your life you ain’t proud of? Yeah, this is one of those songs that tells you you ain’t perfect & no one is either. Nobody’s perfect. What I really liked about this song is how Missy was featured in it. She didn’t really rap but she has some vocals to make an effort to sing. However the story behind this song is actually about Cole wondering about his girl’s number & if he should interact with her even though she isn’t the person that he thought she was.
Track 12. “Never Told” Produced by No I.D. This track is about the drive that some men inherit to cheat & the heartbreak that follows after. Cole feels the guilt that men have inside of them. He also observes how contradictive some men can be.
Track 13. “Rise and Shine” In the beginning of this track we hear audio of Jay-Z talking about someone writing raps on the back of an Apple Jacks cereal box. In the background you can hear his “Money, Cash, Hoes” track from his 3rd album Vol.2… Hard Knock Life (1998). You know the one that Jay said he’d get criticized for the hook? Anyway after all of that,you hear this high pitched orchestra of trumpets & a ring of drummers like in a high school marching band banging the hell out of the drums in unison. I can’t forget to mention that mellow flute playing too,that part was really nice. We see a playful side of Jermaine with his puns about Jamaica, nooses and dead guys. Basically Cole is just taunting his competition & showing potential that he is the one to carry the torch.
Track 14. “God’s Gift” This heavy build up expresses Cole’s hatred of domestic violence. He knows the abuse of women & what they go through in the aftermath that includes fear & paranoia. The production on this track by Cole makes it very dramatic because it involves this heavy bass line of a guitar playing at the hooks that Cole delivers.
Track 15. “Breakdown” Personally my favorite song off the entire album. The bold &super emotional is about three subjects that mentally breakdown Cole. The first verse is a reflection of Cole’s relationship with his father who left the family way back in his childhood. He describes the pain with a example of hisntears that he shed. He cried so much that a “whale” could float in a pool of his pain. Cole remained fatherless throughout most of his life. He struggles to accept him to be in his life again after all the damage he caused to his family. There is some hatred being thrown at him. The second verse opens up a brief description of Cole’s mother being an alcoholic, drug dealing & social injustice on blacks being killed in the streets. Cole wishes he can save his people & the one’s he loves from the exposure of death. The final verse focuses on the life a woman who grew up to be surrounded by the danger of other men. Jermaine really killed this song &put everything he had into a thoughtful address.
Track 16. “Work Out” The hit single that lead gave The Sideline Story it’s signature touch. Cole worked the production on this one by sampling Kanye’s humorous track “The New Workout Plan”off his classic 2003 debut album The College Dropout. This song is good to listen to of you’re gonna going through a time in a relationship where you gotta part your ways to benefit yourself. But there is a story behind this single that made Cole create “Let Nas Down.” So Nas became a fan of Cole when he came out with his mixtape The Warm Up in 2009. That was one of Cole’s ideals that he became obsessed with. But Cole felt like he let Nas down when he released “Work Out.” Nas told Cole that he heavily disliked the song for being mediocre. That hurt Cole but he learned from the song.
Top 3 Tracks: Breakdown, Dollar and a Dream III & Rise and Shine