No More Big 3! What's Cole's Next Move?!?!

No More Big 3! What's Cole's Next Move?!?!

July 11, 2024

If you haven’t read my previous article, scroll down on the freshthoughts2020 tab and check it out. In that article, we discussed whether Kendrick’s feud with Drake might be pointless if he doesn’t aim for the commercial number one spot. With a clear task ahead for Kendrick (whether he follows it or not), we’re left to ask: What is Cole’s next move?

I.Cole's Strong Start in 2024

Cole came into 2024 in a great position in the power rankings and was a strong front-runner to take the lead. He outperformed Drake on “First Person Shooter,” went bar to bar with him again on “Evil Ways” from the “Scary Hours Edition of For All The Dogs,” and just completed a successful national tour.

II.The Apology and Its Aftermath

IMAGE VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cole was set to answer the call when he released his “Might Delete Later” EP. However, moments later, his infamous apology came, leading many people to write him off and not wanting to hear from him for a while. Then he reappeared on the bubbling New York sensation Cash Cobain’s track “Grippy,” which has been regarded as one of Cole’s worst verses. The verse wasn’t even bad, but if it wasn’t mind-blowing post-apology, any verse he penned was going to get panned anyway.

III.The Dismantling of the Big 3

The idea of the Big 3 has been dismantled. The world waits on a new K-dot album, ready to crown him as number one, while the Drizzy hive stands patient awaiting Drake’s inevitable return. Again, what is Cole to do?

IV.The Two-Part Plan for Cole's Comeback

I believe Cole has to do two things to ensure a great comeback and even get his name back into that front-runner conversation. We know he’s been hyping up his album The Fall Off, which is in a worse position post-beef. Here’s what he should do to make sure his album isn’t swept under the rug when it drops.

First, Cole has to address Symba. Why Symba? People may have forgotten about that freestyle he did on the “Control” beat, but it needs to be addressed. He sympathized with letting Nas down but went on to say he left Bas and Cozz down, the whole squad down. He slammed him for the apologies. Cole has to address how he didn’t have to clout beef with Kendrick, and most importantly, he has to spank Symba for even thinking he can say that. There are a few angles he can go with, but I probably shouldn’t reveal that. If Cole is capable like I know he is, he should know the angles too. There are plenty of lyricists who will probably make fun of that apology moving forward with general bars, but he needs to make Symba the poster child of what happens when you disrespect Cole.

He needs to do this because Symba has enough lyrical respect from peers and elder statesmen of hip-hop that he’s worth addressing, and because Symba doesn’t threaten Cole in popularity. It’s like Pusha T with Drake. Symba can scorch Cole until he’s blue in the face, but modern rap is a popularity contest, and Cole would never lose that. However, for this to be effective, Cole would have to scorch Symba as if he’s going up against JAY-Z himself—no mercy! If Cole does this, half of the two-part plan to dominance will be secured by everyone taking mental notes: “Maybe we shouldn’t mess with this guy; that apology stuff doesn’t really mean anything.”

The second thing Cole must do is very simple: hits on hits! He has to get into his Forest Hills bag. That’s far from my favorite project from him, but it’s his most commercially successful album, and his sound isn’t compromised! He should re-listen to that album hard while creating The Fall Off and study the singles from Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. He needs smashes—songs for the radio!

With these two things working in unison, we’ll quickly forget the same people saying they “...never want to hear him again,” “he’s soft,” blah blah, will be the same people saying “oh Cole’s the G.O.A.T., Cole’s the G.O.A.T.”

These are only suggestions, and he can take these suggestions and stuff them up Rubi Rose’s ass for all he cares. But if he still cares and wants to get back in that conversation, he’s got to do something along these lines. It’s not even much, but it’ll be more than enough. Trust!

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ART AND JESUS: Is it sacrilegious or can we respect the artistic integrity.

ART AND JESUS

APRIL 13, 2023

I.THE CROWN OF THORNS

Kendrick Lamar during his Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Tour

Is it sacrilegious or can we respect the artistic integrity. I was watching a recent Kdot performance during his Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers run and was noticing he was wearing a diamond crown of thorns, which I believe he wore on the album cover.

As I was watching it, I scrolled through the comments and was noticing a lot of people were concerned about Kendrick’s crown and felt like he was making a mockery of Jesus. The crown look aesthetically cool but I started having the same concerns. I think in order to crack this we have to go back what the crown of thorns actually meant in reference to Jesus.

In the Bible the crown of thorns were definitely a symbol of mockery.

28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

29 And they platted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

30 And they spat upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head.

31 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the robe, and put on him his garments, and led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 27:28-31

As you can see the crown of thorns meant no good when it was placed upon Jesus’ head. Yet you see images of Kdot, the Makaveli album cover (which did it says it did not intend to be a mockery on the cover), and even the Kanye Rolling Stone cover where he was depicted as if he were crucified. I think I can understand what these artists are at least trying to portray.

I think each artist is expressing the criticism and trials that comes with their position of influence. I guess extreme public criticism could in essence feel like a crucifixion. Which is probably a logical/sensible comparison since crucifixion was a common way of public humiliation back in the day.

I believe the issues become though nothing they go through can compare to THEE crucifixion (Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice) and it is probably unwise to compare anything to it. Jesus was completely without fault, unjustly destroyed, and decided to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the world from itself.

II.UNJUST COMPARISON

Stop me if I’m wrong but does any of the artists I named contributions amount to something like that?I’ll answer for you, no! So it begs the question why do people continue to do stuff like this? Every generation has an artist and will have an artist that tries to recreate something related to the crucifixion of Jesus but I can’t understand what pushes people to do that besides the earlier point I made. So back to my earlier question, do we respect the artistic integrity or classify the things these artists do as a smack in the face to Christ himself? Bottom line, I can’t find myself that the artists I named had deliberate ill intent in their heart but I know there are other artists out there who have done the same thing who had full intentions to be a mocker!

Though I cannot find deliberate ill intent I can stand on the fact that things like this may be best avoided. Our hardships and criticism just simply don’t compare to what Jesus suffered, even though we can use his suffering as teaching tool on how to deal with suffering, we should never think we have paid ultimate price of suffering as he did especially when it comes to music & arts.

Even I had a line that went “… five stars where they keep us and I wear the same crown that they gave Jesus” and I pretty much meant what I said earlier, the line was meant to show people mocked and criticized me and didn’t think I wasn’t as esteemed as I portrayed myself. But today I probably wouldn’t say a line like that after going through the process of writing this article and realizing what I was saying. So yeah moving forward lets probably stop using Jesus’ execution as a metaphor for our life’s suffering because the comparison is really nonexistent when you think about it.

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