Finally! Review - Cole World: The Sideline Story

Finally. Our review of J. Cole's debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, is in, and we can't wait to let you know what we think of it.


Sideline Story is a great start for the North Carolina rapper. The album is very familiar and very J. Cole. The "Intro" shows Cole telling us that he is coming for he is owed (and what he deserves). "Dollar and a Dream III" is the latest installment in one of J. Cole’s most famous series of songs and serves a nostalgia that Cole fans are used to, and is one of the album's highlights. New fans with a good insight may also agree.

"Can't Get Enough", the third track and the second single from the album, seems as if it was blatantly written to be nothing more than a song for mainstream radio. And somehow....it works. It’s definitely not an example of Cole's lyricism, but that doesn't mean it's should be skipped over. "Lights Please" is a classic for those who have been following Cole's career since the mixtapes, though some believe that it's overplayed.

In the "Interlude", Cole tells us about the day he was signed to Roc Nation. He remembers being super ecstatic about receiving the news, and then ends up in jail due to some problems in New York. However, he did not care. As he put it, "These niggas have no clue." And he was right. Oh, he was so right.

Here at Certified Fresh, we believe that the sixth track, "Sideline Story" is perhaps the highlight of the album. The chorus is very relatable and the hunger and cockiness is very loud. This is the exact thing that you would play while you attempt to get off the bench in whatever you’re striving to do. The cockiness continues over to the next track, "Mr. Nice Watch", which sounds as if it should have been on Watch the Throne. J. Cole shows off his hotness and his new watch in two great verses, and spits real life on the chorus. Cole then turns it over to his superstar mentor, Jay-Z, who lets his pockets do the talking, ending the song with a shout out to his newest protege.

In the next track "Cole World", Cole points out the flaws with the rap game, his new-found fame ("Got 150 bitches in the club STARIN' at me. How that feel? VERY HAPPY!"), and what he did to get that fame. It can be looked at either as another album highlight, or as a showing of Cole's hunger and cockiness. "In the Morning", which previously appeared on Cole's mixtape Friday Night Lights, is a good addition to the album. While mainstream listeners tend to appeal to Drake's verse more than Cole's, the song is still worth listening to.

"Lost Ones" could possibly be the standout track. It's subject is one that people rarely like to talk about, and follows a young male who accidentally impregnates his girlfriend. He suggests that the girl gets an abortion, pointing out that both of them are too young and are not ready to bring a child into the world and raise it by themselves. The girl then lashes out to her boyfriend, comparing him to his deadbeat father.

"Nobody's Perfect" is another one of those songs in which Cole raps about his new-found fame and the new bad bitches in his life. But somehow, he still tends to stress over it all, especially when trying to find that right girl. The album's chorus, while song greatly by Missy Elliot, sounds just a bit out of place. "Never Told" is possibly the only skippable song on the album, but still has a good message behind it.

Every good rap album has a song in which the rapper just completely snaps. "Rise and Shine" is that song. Cole takes all of the problems and flaws from his past, and serves them on a silver platter. His so-so basketball skills, the girls that played him, the guys who hated on him, driving around in his mother's Honda Civic, are grilled up and spit out. The same is said for the next track, "God's Gift," another album highlight.

"Breakdown" is one of those songs that Cole is able to strike your heart with."Work Out", the first single released for the album, is another song for mainstream radio that actually works. It brings up the subject of meeting that dream girl, and deciding if it's just a fling, or actually meant to be. As for the bonus tracks, "Who Dat" (which was originally intended to be the album's lead single) was one of the first indications that Cole was going to change the game with just one question. "Daddy's Little Girl", everyone knows one of those. The girl that throws it around, gives it up easily, and has no clear direction of where her life is going, yet she claims she's ready for the world. It's really another standout track.

All in all, J. Cole's Sideline Story is a fantastic album, and has at least one song that everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, can relate to in some type of way. It is an album that we here at Certified Fresh will be listening to for years to come. Cole World: The Sideline Story gets a Certified Fresh rating (5 out of 5).

C-F's recommended tracks: Every song on the album.