In the 2014 album, Forest Hills Drive, Jermaine Lamarr Cole, or better known as his stage name “J. Cole”, raps a self- described personal statement about his childhood. Cole’s album is filled with different series of metaphors in which he speaks about love, growth and identity of his childhood home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive is the most personal and ambitious album he has yet written. In this album Cole tells his story about leaving home back in 2003 to find success and illustrates how his life went from rags to riches.
Cole was born on a U.S. Army base in Frankfurt, Germany on January 28, 1985. Cole was brought to Fayetteville at 8 months old by his mother Kay Cole. After moving from house to house Kay
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Second song on the album is “January 28,” referring to the day he was born. “03 Adolescence,” is where Coles raps exactly about how he went from rags to riches. In “St. Tropez,” and “Apparently,” Cole portrays emotion through his brusque singing, whereas in “A Tale of 2 Citiez,” “Fire Squad,” “and “G.O.M.D,” Cole flashes his technical excellence. Cole shows his love for one of his favorite rappers, 2Pac, by switching s’s for z’s on “Wet Dreamz”, “No Role Modelz”, “Love Yourz,” Like Pac did on “All Eyez On Me.” Pac was not the only artist reflected on the album. Cole’s fifteen-minute credit roll, “Note to Self,” emulated Kanye West’s “Last Call,” on the College Dropout Album. As Cole was coming close to finishing his album, there was a situation in Ferguson where many people, a majority being African Americans, were dangerously protesting due to the aftermath of Michael Browns shooting that happened on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. The riot in Ferguson inspired Cole to write the song, “Be free,” where he sings his heart out and explains how, “there is no gun that can kill someone’s