Cape Town - J Cole has been teasing about the release of his new album, KOD, since the beginning of this week and it is finally out.
The 33-year-old’s last album, 4 Your Eyez Only, was released in 2016.
In a series of tweets he explained that the album name has three meanings: “’Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed and Kill Our Demons.’ The rest of the album I leave to your interpretation,” he wrote in a tweet, moments after he released the album.
In a trailer for the album, J Cole explained the three meanings briefly.
“If I turn on the TV right now, it's not gonna [sic] take long for there to be an advertisement that pops up that says, 'Are you feeling down? Have you been having lonely thoughts?'" says a low-pitched and distorted male voice, which could be J. Cole's, in the clip. "And then they shove a pill in your face. The first response of any problems is medicate,” a voice says in the video to explain ‘Kids on Drugs’
Touching on ‘King Overdose’, the video continues, “That's representing me, the times that I was, and am, afflicted by the same methods of escape," he says.
The final meaning refers to ‘Kill Our Demons’. “That's the end goal, to face our sh**, realize that we have some sh** going on inside. Everybody... because nobody's f**ing perfect,” he explains.
KOD is packed with meaning, from the album cover to references about issues with alcohol, phone addiction and women.
The album cover features an animation of what appears to be J Cole dressed as a king. The inside of his robe is filled with kids taking different types of drugs. Above the kids are skeleton heads. The title on top of the depiction is “"This album is in no way intended to glorify addiction”.
The album flows beautiful from one song to the next and tells a story of a black man dealing with the love of money, chasing fame, and superficial relationships with women on the internet.
This is a must listen.
Here’s what fans on Twitter thought:
