the concept of the track revolves around him disappearing/not enjoying life or wanting to be around etc, but he still manages to make it incredibly simplistic ("damn it, won't be long 'fore i disappear" x4 in the middle of the verse) and he still manages to include "bitches hit my phone when they want some dick," somehow, as wrong as it may sound in the context. 'ville mentality' sort of summarises why i have a problem with people calling cole a really great lyricist. Then 'deja vu' came, and i sighed audibly at lines like "he introduced you as his girl and i was heartbroken" and "i heard you got a man but who in their right mind is letting you out the house alone." i think that song is sort of like, if you got everything that people hate about cole's writing and put it into a track. the depressing, lonely lyrics of the former and the vintage cole storytelling of the latter were without a doubt far more interesting than his usual subject matter, and the repeated existential questions had me really interested and i was starting to wonder if this might be the album where cole lives up to his potential. honestly i was really excited after listening to for whom the bell tolls and immortal. the production is without a doubt the highlight of the album to me.īut man, in terms of lyrical content, this album is largely just the ultimate frustrating j. the drums are consistently really fucking good, the samples are great and the beats just suit cole really well.
Ok, to start off before going totally in with the criticisms i just want to say that this album was (for the most part) incredibly well produced.