Note: This album has an Explicit Content warning for certain lyrics/songs. Please use discretion when listening.
On April 5th, 2024, J Cole released his 10th studio album titled “Might Delete Later”. The album came out as a genuine surprise to anyone, as it came out with no pre-promotion. In fact, Cole announced it only a few hours before its release on Instagram. Cole also found himself involved in controversy before this album with rapper Kendrick Lamar, famously “dissing” (disrespecting) him earlier this month. With that happening, many expected this album to have a diss track (which it did, but was swiftly deleted).
Who is J Cole?
Jermaine Cole also known as “J Cole” is a North American rapper from North Carolina. J Cole’s first studio album came out back in the year 2011 and was called “Cole World”. Since these times, J Cole has dropped many classics, including, “Middle child”, “Deja Vu”, “No Role Moldez”, “Love Yourz”, and many more.
J Cole has been influential in the rap game for over a decade, so, as expected, many were excited about this album.
The album started with a bang with the first song on the album “Pricey” featuring Young Dro and Gucci Mane. This first song does a good job of setting the tone for the album. My favorite part of the opener has to be Ari Lennox’s parts, as her voice was nice to hear and balances the song well.
Another song that I enjoyed was Ready ’24. The thing that made this song a good listen for me was the instrumental track behind the vocals. It was pleasant, and it paired well J Cole’s flow. For gamers, the song has a bit of an NBA 2k14 soundtrack vibe; this was nice and nostalgic for me, too, as I’ve enjoyed that game, and listening brought me back to being a kid playing it.
As for a song I wasn’t fond of had to be “Huntin Wabbitz’ I feel the placement of the song in this part of the album doesn’t fit well. Putting the song right after “Ready ’24 featuring Cam’ron” was too drastic of a tone change for me and could have been better placed somewhere different in the album.
The biggest song on the album was 7-minute drill which is now off the album. The song served as a response to Kendrick Lamar and Metro Boomin’s Diss track on their album, the song wasn’t much of a diss track in response mostly serving to calm down the situation.
Cole’s album was full of ups and downs for me but in the end, I’ll rate it a solid 7.8 out of 10 stars.
As always, the Coral Springs High School community’s opinions on the topic were different and diverse. 11th grader Kensey Fredric had quite the opinion on J Cole’s album giving it a rating of 3/10, his reason for this being, “I like Cole, but I don’t like the album, especially since he used it as a means to Kendrick Lamar originally. Cole has the potential to create strong music, but this one was not the album.”
I heard a different opinion on the album from 12th grader Clyde. When asked if he liked the album, he told me, “Yeah, I like the album. It was really good. Cole delivered yet again; it’s a cool 8/10.”
As you can see, even here at CSHS, the opinion on J Cole is very hit or miss.
The End
In the end, J Cole’s 10th studio album was filled with ups and downs. Whether the song was “Huntin Wabbitz”, “Ready ’24”, or “7-minute Drill”, Might Delete Later had something for everybody to enjoy and for the fans to love.
