Grammy nominated Roc Nation artist J Cole has been rather quiet since his debut album Sideline Story hit shelves in 2011 and gained him a couple of plaques. Cole said his hiatus was strategical and he feared being those ‘don’t forget about me’ rappers, by dropping a boat load of new music every couple of months. The bigger picture being that Cole wanted his fans to miss him and anticipate the new music, which would boost the appreciation value. I can say that from the outside looking in, he seems to have accomplished that. The fans have been asking, and after releasing a warm up single late last year entitled Miss America, he releases his official single ‘Power Trip’ with his ‘All I Want is You’ partner in crime, Miguel.
Jermaine produced the single, and establishing himself as a well respected producer is something he’s still working towards. When asked about why he chose this as a single, he stated that there’s nothing else thats on the radio that sounds like this so it could feel a void. Cole recently told MTV the record is reminiscent of ‘Cry Me A River’, and I suppose this was his best Timberland impression behind the beat boards. I would have never pin pointed those to records together, but, he has a point. The clash of melody and rough sounds is perfect.
Lyric wise, the Roc Nation torch carrier is telling a story of loving and losing. Clearly this was inspired by sometime, and the speculation is it could possibly be about his previously reported, long time girlfriend which he flaunted in the ‘In The Morning’ video. He recalls writing a song about this young lady 3+ years ago when he raps ‘Even wrote the Dreams for ya’ Dreams is a song off of his mixtape ‘The Warm Up’.
The story takes us from being to NC and not getting the love he wanted to coming back and dealing with all the love he ever dreamed up plus some. In the the midst of this he’s still missing the special lady. ‘She got me up all night, all I’m singing is love songs’ Cole chants. Somewhere he’s trying to rationalize the split and block his feelings but it doesn’t seem to be doing the trick.
Miguel comes in for the second part of the hook singing ‘ Would you believe if I said I’m in love? Baby, I want you, to want me’
One thing J Cole fans have yet to have to worried about is him ‘changing’. He talks about the same things he has always spoke on. Love, pride, raising from nothing to something in his city. Miguel is the perfect addiction to this track because he sings with the raw emotion that Coles’ lyrics displays. This record is very relatable on so many levels, which I think it will be faired extremely well at radio.
Cole said they’re determining a new release date for his album Born Sinner now but with this release I’m sure it’ll be sooner than later. So for those fans still wanting more Cole, don’t power trip.
Listen to ‘Power Trip‘ here.
Peace.
