4 Your Eyez Only Analysis

“Listen to this album!! It has a nice plot!” said no one ever, until J. Cole’s album 4 Your Eyez Only dropped in 2016. This album, entirely written by J. Cole himself, stands out from any other album I have listened to. Typically, music albums are simply a collection of songs for entertainment and pleasure of listening. However, 4 Your Eyez Only is an intersection of music, poetry, and narrative, giving its audience ten rap tracks that tell a real-life story from alternating perspectives. Throughout the songs in the album, Cole touches on struggles he, his friend, and the underprivileged African American community faced while growing up in a poor area. Furthermore, the fact that Cole is a primary source of this event adds even more authenticity

The beat is more upbeat than any other song in the album thus far as Cole confidently repeats himself on a hopeful note saying, “The only real change come from inside.” Cole expands on this idea by rapping about his own experiences and beliefs. He has grown over the years, seeking peace by looking into himself and at things outside of his childhood environment, including God, meditation, and a pen to write lyrics with. Despite Cole shaping his life so that he can reach his full potential, James’s voice says that crime is his “chosen religion.” When James goes on to say “I just supply, it’s economics,” referring to his drug dealing business, he reveals that he ended up sticking with his “Ville Mentality,” putting his life at risk and limiting his opportunities. The lyrics swap back to Cole’s point of view, where he challenges James’ earlier notion of being “real.” James mentioned earlier that being “real” consists of violence, drug abuse, and disobeying the law and that it makes him immortal. Cole, however, believes this is “poison” and goes on to rap about how James eventually died because of this mindset: “He was 22…” All of a sudden, the happy beat diminishes to sad accompaniment by

For me, this song revealed any unresolved mysteries introduced in any other part of the album. The title itself carries value since Cole reveals here that this song—and perhaps this album as a whole—is a loving message from James to his daughter Nina. In the first three verses, James, voiced by Cole, relates to his daughter and explains the unfortunate circumstances of his life—a child, with a mother addicted to drugs and no father—who was raised in a poor black community that pressured him into dealing drugs at the early age of thirteen. At nineteen, James had his daughter, Nina. Suddenly, all those times he broke the law began to matter because all of his past felonies prevented him from getting a nice job to provide for his family, and he lacked an education due to low economic status and time in prison. As a result, James began work as a janitor, scrubbing toilets to feed his family, and constantly fought the temptation to make money the easy way—by dealing drugs again. “If the pressure get too much for me and I break, play this tape for my daughter and let her know my life is on it,” James says, implying that he is considering reverting to dealing drugs to keep food on the table. James also continues to give his daughter advice to not follow his path so that the cycle of tragedy does not carry on to her children as well. The father to