Outside of Deja Vu, which is basically a rehash of a Bryson Tiller song, Exchange, with the same sample (KP and Envyi’s Swing My Way), this is a collection of songs with a clear and unified vision, scrutinizing mass incarceration, police brutality, toxic masculinity (which he brands as “tough guy culture”) and other tensions plaguing black communities. It’s a microcosm of Eyez, which is equal parts personal and political, and absolutely his best album yet. “Fuck the fame and the fortune – well, maybe not the fortune / But one thing is for sure though, the fame is exhausting,” he admits on the bass-heavy Neighbors, a fast-paced jam that refuses to confuse upward social mobility with inclusion, as Cole recognizes that his rich neighbors think he made his money “selling dope”. He does this all while dissecting how stardom has changed his life just enough to make him influential, yet somehow not enough to spare him from racial profiling. With his new album, 4 Your Eyez Only, Cole channels Be Free, finding a new niche and renewed purpose as a mouthpiece for black frustrations, throwing himself headfirst into rap activism. It was a moving tribute to black lives mattering that unfolded like a vigil on live TV: “Can you tell me why/ Every time I step outside I see my niggas die/ I’m lettin’ you know that there ain’t no gun they make that can kill my soul.” To this day, it remains the most gripping and endearing moment in his canon. When Brown was killed, Cole performed an ode called Be Free on the David Letterman show. Cole was among the first responders to the cause, heeding the call from fans looking to anoint a new generation of visible advocates he was early on the scene in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown and has written a handful of protest songs since.
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