4/5
The Courtside Story.
Lights on again please! It really is a Cole World now. Putting on for his home state of North Carolina in the 2019 NBA All Star Game in Charlotte, NC, his mid-game classic with no choruses was so good, there was no way he was letting Nas down now with this halftime show. It was so raw and real it even butter played toast, played close to Marvin Gaye's funkafied rendition of the National Anthem from the 1983 game for those who wanted sexual as well as spiritual healing. With a mane of dreads this young Simba was playing for the King and them and it's only got better for 'The Sideline Story' over the last two. 'The Come Up' complete for the 'Born Sinner' from 'Forest Hills Drive'. Mixtape to album everything else looking like a 'Warm Up' next to these 'Friday Night Lights'. Don't judge a book by its cover. Even with this iconic black coat 80's throwback that looks like something between a Weeknd concept, Michael Jackson and Madonna, 'Like A Prayer'. The basketball goal burning behind him like a religious icon for a man whose held more balls on his mixtape artwork than the New York Lottery or a Kardashian. Like a burning one on SLAM J. Cole even 'Dedicated To The Game' sits on a hoop throne for the cover of the latest issue of the basketball magazine he reaffirmed, "Jordan was like Jesus, SLAM was like the Bible". In a big-three, holy trinity with New York's new finest in Julius Randle and RJ Barrett and the ladies of this game in the WNBA champion Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm, Nneka Ogwumike, leader of the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury's Skylar Diggins-Smith and 'White Mamba' GOAT Diana Taurasi. This cat can ball too. He's been signed by the Rwanda Patriots of the Africa League and this professional player about to change another game has even been endorsed by Puma like Kyle Kuzma with the Laker young star tweeting track-by-track with all spaces like how the downtown gunner spreads the floor. With so much ballin' Master P can only say "uhhhhhh", all that's left now is 'The Off-Season'.
But you know that's when most of the blockbusters and real games happen like 'A New Legacy' of 'Space Jam 2' and this guy, "can't leave the game yet, I feel like LeBron" like he raps on '1 0 0. m i l'. "Ja Morant, I'm" on my Grizzly" he dedicates on 'm y. l i f e'. F#####g around like Ice Cube on a good day and giving it up for the new Oscar passing triple-double king Russell Westbrook on 'a m a r i' ("kill a song, walk out the booth, do the Westbrook rock-a-baby") as he freaks everybody every way like MJ for more hoop head name drops for the rapper than Fabolous has throwback jerseys (and Jermaine Dupri tells us that guy even had Elden Campbell's). J even samples fellow rapper/hooper Dame D.O.L.L.A. AKA, Damian Lillard like a DJ Jazzy Jeff 'Practice' with Allen Iverson on the blazing 'p u n c h i n'. t h e. c l o c k.' It's Cole time now for a guy with cooler song titles than Maxwell and Music Soulchild puttogether. "Cole been going plat' since back when CD's was around" he raps on the '95. s o u t h' opener with a foreword from the pink don Cam'ron. The Rocafella Diplomat back with immunity like he was meant to star in the other game before he blew out his ankle. Rappers want to be ball players and ball players want to be rappers. But when it comes to Cole and Killa Cam, we all ball. All the way to the Bas 'h u n g e r. o n. t h e. h i l l s i d e' closer for the man who "walks through the flame like I'm Teflon". No wonder the rest of the game not in his lane ("I see through you like Tupac hologram") dreads the man who "has grey hairs already" in those Wyclef's. Oh and if that wasn't enough the man who once did it all with no features is complete with crunk ad-libs from Lil'Jon. "WHAT?!" YEAH!
'A m a r i' is fresher than the days of Atari. Whilst 'm y. l i f e' with 21 Savage and Morray goes harder than your last day. Sampling Styles P and Pharoahe Monch as J raps, ""Spiralin' up, just like a rich n#### staircase (Spiral up)/No fly zone, please stay the f### out my airspace (Out my face)/N####s say things behind backs that they wouldn't dare say (Dare say)/Know it's on sight when I see you, I'm workin' at Squarespace/Yeah, top of the mornin', I know that you thought I was dormant/Woke up early from shots that were swarmin'/A block full of opps, now the cops in an orbit". 'a p p l y i n g. p r e s s u r e' for a man backing everyone else against the wall as he's never scared. Like he said on a Kanye West 'G.O.O.D. Friday', 'Lookin' For Trouble', "they say you are what you eat and I still ain't pussy" (still my favourite line). "When I defeated believe I get up' he says keeping it 100 on 'm i l' with Bas for year Beats bass. Thankful he made it past his 30's (I feel ya...who am I kiddin? That was a half decade ago) on 'p r i d e. i s. t h e. d e v i l' Cole LeBron and AD's with Lil Baby. Before reuniting with Bas and 6lack with 'l e t. g o. m y. h a n d'. His most personal on this set and maybe to date as he relates, ""I'm wonderin' just when did I become my biggest critic?/I wanna be my biggest fan, like how I was when didn't nobody know my jams/Today my son said, "Dad, let go my hand"/Reminded me one day he's gonna be his own man/And my job is to make sure he's equipped". This hell of a life a trip when, "My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would've thought it?/I bought that n### album in seventh grade and played it so much/You would've thought my favorite rapper was Puff," (me too). Now it's J.C. like the almighty. Inspired 'i n t e r l u d e' s' and the like on 't h e. c l i m b. b a c k.' as the sample asks, "are you doing this work to facilitate growth? Or to become famous?" Now which is more important? Getting? Or letting go? Now that question keeps you 'c l o s e' like The Chosen One whose every bar is a scar, cross to bear, or chapter and verse, gift and curse. "Villmatic". Now Nas can't let him down. It's funny end-to-end how quickly the game changes back and forth. Right now when it comes to Cole they're "labelling him the GOAT". Only Kendrick comes close. I'm sorry Drake. If you're reading this. You know, "too late". Roc Nation and Frankfurt, German's (aufstehen) own shows no sign of slipping like a DMX classic (rest peacefully), even in 'The Fall Off Era'. Over a half-hour of halftime motivating power, the (un)official soundtrack to the forthcoming NBA Playoffs and contender of the album of the year won't come down like, "game...blouses". This J is up in the big leagues now. We can't wait for the tip-off. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: '95. s o u t h', 'a m a r i', 'p u n c h i n'. t h e. c l o c k'.
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