J. Cole's Coming of Age Track 5: A Tale of 2 Citiez (2014 Forest Hills Drive)

When the album first came out this was the song I was bumping probably the most. A Tale of 2 Citiez shares a lot of similarities to the previous song 03' Adolescence. The similarities being different ways of dealing with being poor and sad. This song is a play on words with the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. Not really a play on words but the song identifies two people in the same city, who could be each other. While A Tale of Two Cities by Mr. Dickens is about London and Paris during the French revolution. The French revolution is noteworthy in this song because to my knowledge, the people who overtook the french people in power treated them like shit much like how they were being treated. But this isn't Grant's blog so I won't bore you with a history lesson. Let's look at the music man!

Since a youngin' always dreamed of gettin' rich
Look at me my nigga
Fantasize about a white picket fence
With some trees my nigga
Used to want a Pathfinder with some tints
That's all I need my nigga
Throw some 20's on that bitch and get it rinsed

An important thing to know about J, Cole is that he had a single white mom through out his childhood. They grew up in a trailer park so when he was growing up he would dream about about a white picket fence and dreams as a luxury. They were also so poor (this sounds like bad stand up now) that a Nissan Pathfinder with tinted windows seemed like a hot ride. He also fantasized about making it rain with $20 bills at a strip club.

But now I see my nigga
That the world's a lot bigger ever since
Picked up the paper and they say my nigga Eddie caught a body, I'm convinced
Anybody is a killer, all you gotta do is push 'em to the limits
Fuck being timid in the Civic politicin' with the pushers and the pimps
I'm tryna write a story, can I get a glimpse? Yeah can I get a glimpse?

Alls those dreams are in the past now. He has been released to the cruel reality that is earth. Catching bodies by the way means to catch the charge for killing someone. Since Eddie was his friend and he couldn't imagine him killing someone he now thinks anyone can be a killer. He is tired of his Honda Civic (not much worse than a pathfinder mind you) and his lifestyle staying on the straight and narrow, politicin' (talking like a politician so like not saying the whole truth, and trying to get out of stuff) with the people who actually do shit. Since he is a musician he is trying to write a story of their realities so he wants a glimpse of their life.

(Chorus 1)
Last night I had a bad dream
That I was trapped in this city
Then I asked is that really such a bad thing?
They robbin' niggas on the daily
Can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things?
(What's the value of a thing?)
Guess not, last night THEY pulled up on my nigga at the light like
Ugh, nice watch, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air
Hands in the air now, hands in the air

A common phrase I've heard in rap music is being stuck in a box. I think he kinda feels like Schrodinger cat. He is always alive and dead because he is physically alive but also mentally dead because the only way to escape your city (or tax bracket) is to rap or play sports. J. also sympathizes with the robbers because like him they never had anything. Asking someone to run it is to hand it over quickly.

This second verse cuts into the perspective of the robber!

Small town nigga Hollywood dreams
I know that everything that glitters ain't gold
I know the shit ain't always good as it seems
But tell me till you get it how could you know?
How could you know? How could you know?

Since J. grew up in a small town he wants to live like he was in Hollywood (foreshadowing?). He decides to forego the reality that he knows that nothing is as good as it seems due to his lack of  getting luxuries.

Listen up I'm about to go and get rich
Fuck with me my nigga
We gon' circle round the Ville and hit a lick
Cop some tree my nigga
And some powder, bag it up and make it flip

J. is sick and tired of waiting for getting money the right way so he is going to hit a lick (getting money quickly). To cop something is to receive, take, or acquire something. Trees is slang for weed, powder is slang for cocaine, they are going to bag it up and flip it. Meaning they are going to sell it.

You gon' see my nigga
One day we gon' graduate and cop a brick
And thats the key my nigga
Listen up I'm bout to go and get rich
Stand back and watch if you want to nigga
Me I want my pockets fat, a badder bitch
Tired of seein' niggas flaunt, I wanna flaunt too nigga
Watch some rollers in the fuckin' Crown Vic
Tryna lock a nigga up, thats what they won't do nigga
Wanna know a funny thing about this shit?
Even if you let em' kill your dream it'll haunt you nigga

A brick is a brick of cocaine. Also known as a kilo so that is the key my nigga (thanks rap genius). He wants his pockets fat, like a badder bitch. Also a Crown Vic is type of car that cops typically do. Also rollers are a term for cops (thanks again rap genius). His dream that they are referring to his getting money. Since drug dealing isn't really a sustainable income considering cops coming after you, and it isn't an "honest" earning. They (being the cops, and the government) killed his dreams. Because of the lack of the role modelz in the black community that aren't in the entertainment industry he doesn't see a better way to earn money than to drug deal. So the cops killed his dreams but they haunt him cause he knows it. This is more of an emotion than something I can explain.

(Chorus 2)
Last night I had a bad dream
That I was trapped in this city
Then I asked is that really such a bad thing?
I look around like do you wanna be another nigga, that ain't never had things?
(What's the value of a thing?)
Guess not, last night WE pulled up on a nigga at the light like
(You know what the fuck it is nigga ,run that shit!)
Uh, nice watch, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air, run it
Hands in the air now, hands in the air
Hands in the air now, hands in the air

This character that Cole painted instead of the first character who is trying to stay on the straight and narrow is now the robber. Notice the parrallels between the first and second verse. Same beginning and same essential state of mind. To the characters in the song its two different citiez. Hence the title of the song.

Father forgive me for my childish ways
I look outside and all the clouds are gray
I need your hands to take me miles away
Your wish is my command, my command, my command
But before you go I've got to warn you now
Whatever goes up surely must come down
And you'll get your piece, but know peace won't be found
So why just take me man, take me man, take me man
Your wish is my command, my command, my command

This is interesting. He hasn't met his dad according to himself. So I think he is talking to god. But, he doesn't have a role model so I think he is talking to god as if he was a friend or something. He asks god for forgiveness for all he did in his adolescence. So god rewards his wishes and says he will take him away and he will get a piece (piece of a pie is a term for a cut for a deal), but he will never find peace.  This is essentially the end of coming of age part of the album. But the next song doesn't exactly have a part so its really in limbo. Either way kick ass song and Kendrick Lamar did a song over this beat (that was made by Vinylz).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAWiV4drB4

J. Cole's Coming of Age Track 4: 03' Adolescence (2014 Forest Hills Drive)

This is the best song on the album. I don't know if I can stress that enough. Not only is it the best song on the album it has the best 10 seconds on the album in the song. 03' Adolescence is about J. Cole's mind state in high school essentially.

I grew up, a fucking screw up
Tie my shoe up, wish they was newer
Damn, need something newer

This whole first verse deals with self esteem issues and deals with the fact that he was poor. He is sick of having low self worth and being poor so he needs something newer.

In love with the baddest girl in the city, I wish I knew her
I wish I won't so shy, I wish I was a bit more fly
I wish that I, could tell her how I really feel inside
That I'm the perfect nigga for her, but then maybe that's a lie
She like a certain type of nigga, and it's clear I'm not that guy
Ball player, star player, I'm just watchin' from the side
On the bench, cause my lack of confidence won't let me fly

Good word play with rhyming newer with knew her. This whole couplet (I know that this isn't the right term) is really relatable to the vast majority of people in high school. I think we have all had a crush on someone that is out of our league.

I ain't grow up with my father, I ain't thinkin' 'bout that now
Fast forward four years or so from now I'll probably cry
When I realize what I missed, but as of now my eyes are dry
Cause I'm trying to stay alive
In the city where too many niggas die
Dreamin' quiet trying to dodge a suit and tie
Who am I? Aye who am I?(Yeah)

Since the lack of confidence won't let him fly he blames that on not growing up with a father figure. But, like everyone in high school repressed emotion and fear drives him. He knows that in the future that he will still be angry and sad. But, he doesn't have time for that he is trying to thrive and live in a city where people die. And these last two lines is a very interesting part of this song. Unlike most people rapping he didn't tell anyone he did till college. So he dreamt quiet and is trying to not be caught up in a suit and tie job. Even though that is a promising career it doesn't allow you to live, the same way rapping would. He is conflicted with these feelings as we head into the chorus.

Things change, rearrange and so do I
It ain't always for the better, dawg, I can't lie
I get high cause the lows can be so cold
I might bend a little bit but I don't fold
One time for my mind and two for yours
I got food for your thoughts to soothe your soul
If you see my tears fall just let me be
Move along, nothing to see

Damn.

I always did shit the hard way
My nigga Squirrel slangin' in the hallway
Burnt CD's and trees like this was Broadway
Times Square, kept the dimes there in the locker
Some Reggie Miller
With more brown hairs than Chewbacca
Whispers that he got it for the low low, sell a
Dime for a dub, them white boys ain't know no better
Besides, what's twenty dollars to a nigga like that?
He tell his pops he need some lunch and he gon' get it right back

I knew the general thing that he was saying in this verse but I didn't exactly get it. He did stuff the hard way like trying to get good grades, and make clean money in the future. When his friend Squirrel was making money instantly selling weed. Dimes are bags of weed that sell for $10 and Reggie is slang for the lowest quality weed. So calling it Reggie Miller means its good bad weed. Comparing it to the third best shooter in NBA history (Sorry Reg you know its true). Also Reggie since it would be bad weed would make you choke like what Reggie Miller did to Spike Lee (see right). Also bad pot has brown hairs much like the aforementioned Wookie. Since Squirrel sells a dime for a dub, that means that he sells $10's worth of weed for $20's. But white boys don't know better.

I peep game
Got home snatched my mama keychain
Took her whip, the appeal, too ill to refrain
I hit the boulevard pull up to my nigga front do'
His mama at home, she still let em' hit the blunt though
I told her hello, and sat with my nigga and laughed
And talked about how we gon' smash all the bitches in class


He saw the game his friend was getting. So he decided to take the car on a joyride to his friends house. Where his mom doesn't care if they smoke. J. Cole is a good guy who respects how hard his mom worked so he respects his mom too even though she doesn't give af about either of them (foreshadowing). Notice how both of them talk big game (how they going to smash all the bitches in class). But as you see in this next part both of them don't know how bad each other has it.

I complimented how I see him out here getting his cash
And just asked, "What a nigga gotta do to get that?
Put me on," 

Jermaine Cole at this point is so sick and tired of being poor he is telling his freind that he want's to deal drugs too. His freinds response is the best part of the album.

he just laughed when he seen I was sure
17 years breathing his demeanor said more
He told me, "Nigga, you know how you sound right now?
If you wasn’t my mans, I would think that you a clown right now
Listen, you everything I wanna be that's why I fucks with you
So how you looking up to me when I look up to you?
You bout to go get a degree, I'ma be stuck with two choices:
Either graduate to weight or selling number two
For what? A hundred bucks or two a week?
Do you think that you would know what to do if you was me?
I got, four brothers, one mother that don't love us
If they ain't want us why the fuck they never wore rubbers?"

J. Cole has a hard life at this point but is protected up till this point. Even though Squirel is getting money and doing "well". He would rather be living how J. Cole is. Because, even though J. Cole's future is uncertain, Squirrel knows his future is certain. You can't make a living selling $10 dollar weed. So he knows he will have to move up to selling cocaine and harder drugs to get by. When J. Cole is going to college! Squirrel envies this life that J. Cole has. Its kinda remarkable and a complete switch to what pop music says. Squirrel also knows that he needs to make money now to support his 4 brothers and his mom that doesn't work. Like Cole, Squirrel doesn't have a dad but instead of Cole he is crying now, instead of in 4 years. 4 years that Cole will be in college. So he is coming to the conclusion that defines lack of self worth. My parents didn't want me, and they didn't want me because my dad isn't here. So why did they not use some form of contraception? He isn't asking J. Cole he is asking the universe or God or whatever you believe in. I just can't articulate what this means right and it hurts me to know that.

I felt ashamed to have ever complained about my lack of gear
And thought about how far we done came
From trailer park to a front yard with trees in the sky
Thank you mama, dry your eyes, there ain't no reason to cry
You made a genius and I, ain't gon' take it for granted
I ain't gon' settle for lesser, I ain't gon' take what they handed
Nah I'm gon' take what they owe me and show you that I can fly
And show old girl what she missing, the illest nigga alive
Aye who am I?

After the verbal rashing that J. Cole received from Squirrel he feels shitty that he doens't appreciate what he has. Because unlike Squirrels mom J, Cole's mom has worked hard to give him a future. She raised him nice and hardworking. She instilled that through her working for the house they own. Which is 2014 Forest Hills Drive. J. Cole is no longer feeling sorry for himself he now has self worth and he is going to take what is his. Which is the rap game by storm!

J. Coles Coming of Age Track 3: Wet Dreamz (2014 Forest Hills Drive)

J. Cole is the best story telling rapper in the mainstream ever. The reason I say mainstream is because I am ignorant. Wet Dreamz is definitely one of the most interesting songs on the album, because I can't actually think of a rapper who would talk about the first time he had sex in a rap song, and actually make it sound cool. I dont want to ruin the song for you. Please listen to it. 2 things of note though. In the song he flips the chorus' to switch who it refers to. Which is something J. Cole has done on numerous songs.

Listen to the song before you read on! Wet Dreamz by J. Cole.

The other thing to note is that his switching dicodamy with his story for the first time he had sex. In the song Too Deep for the Intro in the album Friday Night Lights, he says:

Should I admit that a slutty bitch was my first smash
Was it experience so nah I didn't wear it out
Always thought my first time would be with someone I cared about
But being a virgin was something to be embarrassed bout
I used her ass for practice so I wasn't scared out my mind

So according to himself in 2010 a slutty bitch was his first smash. However in Wet Dreamz he claims that the gal hadnt had sex. Believe it or not, this is a big debate in the J. Cole community or the Columminty. People get into this debate a lot. But, believe it or not I dont care! This song is good. Play it for your kids before they go to sleep.