The Chuckness

People love lists. Particularly “best of the year” lists. There’s something about putting a quantitative ranking next to a collection of the year’s entertainment — the people need to know how things match up against each other. To be honest, I was dreading the creation of these rankings. It’s borderline impossible for me to take two albums of completely different genres and try to justify how one is better than the other. In the process though, you re-discover albums from earlier in the year that you loved, but didn’t quite give enough time to. This is the summation of that … Continue reading →

Only a small percentage of rap nerds would even be confused by this, but as a rap nerd I feel obligated to explain. No, this isn’t the producer Omen who helped define the Roc-A-Fella sound back when Roc-A-Fellawas still around to have a sound. This is the producer Omen who rolls with J. Cole and also raps. I’m assuming J. Cole Omen wasn’t aware of Roc-A-Fella Omen when he chose the name. Moving on…. In order to continue to define his individual style Omen just dropped his “Afraid of Heights” mixtape, which is pretty damn dope. Need a sample? Sure, how about “Mama Told Me” featuring Cole? … Continue reading →

Here are the official visuals for Cole’s heavy-hearted “Lost Ones”, off of his well received debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story (review here). Apparently, as the note tells us in the opening frame, this was shot 3 years ago before Cole had any form of a record deal with Roc Nation. I knew “Lost Ones” had been sitting in a vault for a while, but the fact that it had an official video of this quality before his deal is impressive. “Lost Ones” is by no means a chart-topping single, but it’s raised the bar for the current state … Continue reading →

Cole World: The Sideline Story sold a strong 217,000 copies in it’s first week on shelves, making it offically the number one album in the country.  It’s well deserved. Congratulations to the dude for putting together one hell of a project. Pick it up here if you haven’t already, and compare your opinion to my review. Tweet

Today marks the moment of J. Cole’s introduction to the world on a grand scale, with the release of his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story. The first signee to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Cole has had a significant buzz behind him since people first got their hands on “Lights Please” back in 2008. It’s been a grind for the North Carolina native to come full circle since getting signed by Jay-Z, but today is the day that he can sit back and admire the work he put into making this moment happen. From the get-go, one thing is undeniably … Continue reading →

J. Cole swung by Union Square today with a busted ankle and did an impromptu rendition of his smash “Can’t Get Enough” for a small crowd. Pick up his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story here. Tweet

J. Cole’s debut album is one of the most hyped of the year. Cole World: The Sideline Story will put to rest the endless debate journalists, bloggers and fans have about whether or not Cole is marketable enough to make it huge.  He just released “Mr. Nice Watch” himself today, and this track settles the debate for me entirely. This shit is the real deal. An infectious chorus and an explosive Jay-Z feature definitely help his situation. Is it all that you’d hoped for? Album due out September 27th. As always, hit the lyrical breakdowns at Rap Genius. [Audio clip: … Continue reading →

Childish Gambino and SD hop on J. Cole’s “Who Dat” instrumental to add a little more flavor to the original. The track is off of Paul Rosenberg’s latest mixtape, which he recently put together. There’s a sad story revolving around SD — he was close to Rosenberg and was killed in a car accident at age 18 — recording this verse before he passed away. Gambino, as always, delivers with his witty punch lines. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: J. Cole (feat. SD & Childish Gambino) – Who Dat (Part 2) Tweet

Here are the visuals for J. Cole’s first single off of his debut album Cole World. When “Work Out” dropped a couple of months ago, I don’t think anyone was expecting a Paula Abdul sample — nor a Kanye sample. Didn’t think it was allowed to sample the sample-master himself. At least he pulled it off. Tweet

EB posted up a little snippet of this track a few weeks ago; but it wasn’t really enough to get a feel for it. Today, both Cole and Wale let go of the final, mastered version, and it absolutely lives up to my expectations. Tracks like this will give Wale the push he’s looking for. Check it out below, and add the final version to your libraries. Produced by J. Cole himself. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Wale (feat. J. Cole) – Bad Girls Club Tweet