Flow State

Bargain Bin No. 11 - BARS

I’m not a J.Cole fan. I don’t hate J.Cole, but he’s one of those artists where some affectation, some part of their persona, just chafes. It niggles at you like a pebble in your shoe and try as you may to ignore it – focus on the parts that work, the stuff people keep insisting is great – you can’t. It bugs you, not enough to actively have disdain for them, but enough that you can’t ever get onboard the bandwagon. You’re a contrarian, and you didn’t mean to be, but man there’s just something about them that’s offputting.

It’s an unpleasant feeling to have about a popular artist or piece of art because it has none of the treacly, sweet truculence of really hating on something. Feeling like you have legitimate cause to rip into something and to get to feel both savage and morally correct at the same time. This isn’t that, it’s duller than that and yet because the subject of your ambivalence is generally enjoyed by most people, you still have to be exposed to it all the time.

That’s how I feel about J.Cole. I think for me the niggle, the pebble in the shoe, the chafe – is the sort of cloying need for approval that some of his music gives off, which then intermittently gives way to a pouty sense of entitlement when that approval is perceived to not have been rightfully awarded.

The whole ‘middle child’ schtick, and the idea that he’s somehow ‘underappreciated’ for his genius as this sort of ‘overlooked’ ‘thinking-man’s rapper’ stuck perenially in the shadows of his more commerically successful industry peers just feels very undergraduate and superficial.

But this is not a fleshed out, or even thought out criticism. Because that would require me to truly engage with Cole to a level that tbh I haven’t. And I want to be upfront about that. I offer litte (or no) legitimate criticisms of either J.Cole’s aesthetic, moral or political faults. I am not contributing anything of substantial value to the conversation surrounding his work. I’m not a hater, and I’m certainly not a stan. I just don’t really like his music.

Except.

For what I can only describe as one of the best freestyles in modern history? That feels fair to say. There’s a bit of competition, like that time Tyler, the Creator went on Funk Flex and decided to engage in a little homoerotic teasing.

But I think this Cole freestyle surpasses even that. Over two legendary beats, Souls of Mischief’s ‘93 ‘til Infinity and Mike Jones’ Still Tippin’, Cole is, absolutely s p i t t i n g. Any criticism I leveled earlier in the piece about him coming of as cloying or paradoxically arrogant and self-concious are gone here in favour of… just the arrogance part really, but in like a cool way. He’s finally reminiscent of his idol Jay-Z, in that he conveys that thing that’s always been part of what makes Jay magical, that effortless swagger, a kind of confidence that speaks softly but which quietly makes any an all rivals question how they ever had the audacity.

Listen to it, and then run it back and listen a few more times. This is truly a generational talent at work, and an artist liberated from petty concerns of self-conciousness, just fucking balling.

Thanks for reading this week’s Bargain Bin, if you disagree with me about the relative merits of this freestyle, that’s fine although you are wrong and incorrect. That being said I welcome any comments wherein you try to argue your (again, wrong and incorrect (presumably)) point.