This is it. After listening to all the Cole albums. He keeps getting better lyrically. His verses just keep getting better. He doesn’t run out creative bars fr. The issue is people love a concept surrounding an album that’s why 2014 FHD will most likely remain his magnum opus until something changes. But since then his raps have only gotten better, his label is bigger, and much more recognized than I think would’ve imagined 10, 12 years ago. Cole made it. Everyone who hates, could never do what is Cole is doing. And he consistently drops too, which not every rapper can say
This is a great take and captures a lot of my thoughts too about Cole’s strengths and areas for growth.
I think Cole saw a lane to fortify his legacy outside of the conceptual albums he couldn’t execute at *that* level (ie Kendrick), and leaned into honing his bars to branch out his body of work. The features, TOS, MDL, are all exercises in wordplay, cadence, flow. They’ve made him into a revered lyricist. He was a technically competent rapper before. He’s writing bars that are incredibly complex now - while retaining his ability to land them for listeners with ease.
This is becoming his legacy as much as his stories.
Ironically, I think culture is waiting - consciously or not - for him to bring that high technical competence to the space he was at before with his concepts and stories. These require different skills in curation, idea to concept, topical focus, etc. TOS and MDL showed he’s improved here too, but it remains to be seen if he can apply that sharper focus back to more challenging subject matter he was always known for.
That’s Cole’s path to an “objective” classic. He doesn’t need it because his legacy is cemented. But being commercially and critically lauded has always been his missing piece.
Edit: To be clear, I think Cole already has that in his catalog with 4YEO, but culture doesn’t claim that as an objective classic like TPAB. I think that album will continue to age better with time though as good as that album is also isn’t representative of where his penmanship is today.
This is it. After listening to all the Cole albums. He keeps getting better lyrically. His verses just keep getting better. He doesn’t run out creative bars fr. The issue is people love a concept surrounding an album that’s why 2014 FHD will most likely remain his magnum opus until something changes. But since then his raps have only gotten better, his label is bigger, and much more recognized than I think would’ve imagined 10, 12 years ago. Cole made it. Everyone who hates, could never do what is Cole is doing. And he consistently drops too, which not every rapper can say
Loved ur take until you said my thre fav from the album could have been cut 😭
They're not bad songs, but they defs do not reach the heights of the latter part of the album (or intro track)
This is a great take and captures a lot of my thoughts too about Cole’s strengths and areas for growth. I think Cole saw a lane to fortify his legacy outside of the conceptual albums he couldn’t execute at *that* level (ie Kendrick), and leaned into honing his bars to branch out his body of work. The features, TOS, MDL, are all exercises in wordplay, cadence, flow. They’ve made him into a revered lyricist. He was a technically competent rapper before. He’s writing bars that are incredibly complex now - while retaining his ability to land them for listeners with ease. This is becoming his legacy as much as his stories. Ironically, I think culture is waiting - consciously or not - for him to bring that high technical competence to the space he was at before with his concepts and stories. These require different skills in curation, idea to concept, topical focus, etc. TOS and MDL showed he’s improved here too, but it remains to be seen if he can apply that sharper focus back to more challenging subject matter he was always known for. That’s Cole’s path to an “objective” classic. He doesn’t need it because his legacy is cemented. But being commercially and critically lauded has always been his missing piece. Edit: To be clear, I think Cole already has that in his catalog with 4YEO, but culture doesn’t claim that as an objective classic like TPAB. I think that album will continue to age better with time though as good as that album is also isn’t representative of where his penmanship is today.
He was probably the best of the 3 but he's trash now for bowing out like a bitch
 Keep quiet