He's followed Kendricks blueprint on his last three albums
( The Offseason was originally supposed to be a MIXTAPE)

After Bornsinner didn't get the Acclaim or sales to go platinum he decided to make his own coming of age album like Good Kid Maad City in 2014 Forest Hills Drive. FHD is arguably Coles only classic album and highest selling album to date. After that he's just been following Dots every move.

Kendrick decides to make a album full of music that matters to him and not worry about making radio records on To Pimp A Butterfly and then here comes Jermaine with his own version of that with 4 your eyez only.

Kendrick then decided to make a more up tempo album that still conveys a message while showing the naysayers that he can make hits at will with DAMN...Cole follows suit with KOD.

Cole isn't really the type of artist to make an album like Mr.Morale where he would put his flaws out there to be critiqued by the world on a large scale and you can make a case that's why he's taken so long to drop The Fall Off. It's been 7 years since he's announced the album but yet nothing but these side projects that don't sound to far off from what his usual projects offer and it's taken him 2 year and a half years to between to drop those which is the time he normally takes to craft an album but he claims to have two classics in the chamber right now yet no release date or any real album rollout??? So I call CAP! He needs Kenny to feed off of creatively and it shows if you care enough to pay attention.

Yall can’t be serious

This was a common narrative back on the old site too

I personally don’t believe it but there’s a reason people think it has merit

They gon fry you but I think you do have a point.

Never thought that for FHD but def 4YEO & KOD.

Offseason I don’t think so; might be top 3 for him so it was better off as an album with the vibe of a mixtape.

Ever since the song I’ve always thought of him as the “Middle Child” between Drake & Kendrick, in the sense that he’s the happy medium between a soft concept, relatability, and hits.

KOD is on the record as being heavily influenced by DAMN. he said it in an interview

Yeah I know it's no denying it

enough man

Yeah I don't really include the Offseason or might delete later in that since they were supposed to be mixtapes.

I'm not a fan of the Offseason that's his worst project to me but I know people that love it

Yeah I feel it, overall I would have tapes ahead of it, but album wise it was a easier listen than the other two

because he gassed and d*** sucked them back in the day even remixing alright and copying his work with the 2nd half of kod with damn n tpab

dudes a clown and a snake

Cole is a better human

Cole is a better rapper

Cole is better looking

Cole is taller

Cole is more relatable

Cole scares the hoes less

Cole has a better personality

Cole is more true to himself (isn’t a clout chaser)

Imagining J Cole in therapy showing his therapist deep quotes he found on instagram like "this really sums up where my mind is at right now"

cole word....

Dreamville niggas were talking slick, that rotd3 tape don't warrant that

the glazing in here is all time. were y'all kendrick fans back in 2022?

They're the same nigga honestly

You say “remixed alright” as if it was Cole jocking Kendrick. They each freestyled on one of each others songs cause they’re (or were) homies, Kendrick freestyled over tale of two cities. Cole def chasing after the artistic license kendrick has but let’s not rewrite history to prove that point

Both their remixes were disappointing :(

i can somewhat understand the 2014FHD -> KOD/DAMN comparisons but I don't really think there's merit for anything except KOD being clearly at least partially inspired by DAMN (and similarly it's probably his weakest album lmao).

Comparing FHD to GKMC is pretty nonsensical though. They have nothing in common beyond being the "break out album". FHD is also far less risky of an album than GKMC and is way more accessible from almost all angles. It's not really comparable in terms of topic, sound, or concept - it's not even really a "coming of age" album, it's just stereotypical "conscious rap" stuff.

I will stand by what I've said before and say 4YEO really deserves to be lauded for how risky of an album it was. Cole was so big at that point and this was from a mainstream level - his music was understood as very accessible and even his feature run ahead of 4YEO was very mainstream coded. He was even doing pop and r&b features, anyone remember Planez? Then he comes out with this incredibly slow-paced, dense, and minimal rap album talking about topics that were alienating to the vast majority of his audience. Jokes aside about stuff like foldin clothes, the fact his last album had s*** like wet dreamz and love yours and then this album right after had the title track or neighbors is crazy.

this isn't to downplay the risk of TPAB or anything, but there is definitely a contrast between TPAB's maximalism and 4YEO's minimalism