His third and perhaps most important studio album, J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive turns 10 this month, with the artist putting on a special performance in honor of the anniversary at Madison Square Garden on December 16. We look back at its impact, and how Cole’s career has evolved since the seminal project.
The day J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive was released, I was in my senior year of college at the University of Miami and drove to Target before my morning classes to get a copy of the album. I went into the store and the CD wasn’t on the shelf yet, so I asked an employee to get it out of the back for me.
View this post on Instagram
I was so excited that I took a picture of myself holding the album, posted it to Instagram and drove back to campus, all before class started.
Little did I — or the rest of the Dreamville faithful for that matter — know that this album would go down as the arguable peak of J. Cole as a solo artist. Sure, he’d go on to garner more Grammy awards and nominations, platinum plaques, and a No. 1 hit, but 2014 Forest Hills Drive remains his most impactful (and best selling) record, and it spawned the ever-popular “platinum with no features” meme.
The album’s success was quite instant, selling 353,000 copies in the first week and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Cole’s third consecutive album to do so. As of last year, it officially went five-times platinum.
The success made us all proud that, after joining Roc Nation with a major co-sign from Jay-Z, hopping on Beyoncé’s “Party” remix, and going toe-to-toe with Kanye West’s Yeezus, J. Cole was truly standing in his own greatness.
Nostalgia for Cole’s early days is high right now, especially since he is rolling out his “Inevitable” podcast series, sharing behind-the-scenes stories of his first handful of projects. He also released his mixtapes The Come Up, The Warm Up, and Friday Night Lights to streaming services. Some day-one fans argue that these are Cole’s best works.
At the point in his career when he dropped 2014 Forest Hills Drive on December 9, 2014, J. Cole had established himself as the people’s champ, and pushed the narrative even further by going back to his roots. The album is named after the address of his childhood home in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In an interview with Tavis Smiley at the time, Cole explained how this house was a big change from growing up in a trailer park.
“To move there from where we were coming from was the ultimate come-up,” he said. “… It was the place that I started dreaming about doing what I’m doing right now. That was the house that I started rapping in. That’s the house where I made my first beats, wrote my first raps, had my first real crushes, my first real jobs, made the basketball team. A lot of my great memories from my teenage years are in that house.”
On the project’s introductory track, Cole croons over a piano instrumental he produced with Ron Gilmore asking if his listeners — and himself — want to be happy? Or free? Cole was always honest in his music about being a Black man in America, but after the murder of Michael Brown, he seemed to have a new sense of urgency to discuss these issues.
On the first official song, “January 28th,” Cole’s birthday, he raps with confidence about how he’s already staked his position in the game.
“The real is back, the Ville is back/Flow bananas, here, peel this back/And what you’ll find is your highness could paint a picture that’s vivid enough to cure blindness/Carolina’s finest, you knew that already/In terms of the greatest, I proved that already.”
He also lists some of his peers who were making an impact at the time: Drake and Kendrick Lamar. But he declares himself “the god,” comparing himself to Rakim, The God MC, whose birthday also falls on January 28.
It’s intriguing to look back on this album in the midst of the current Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef. Earlier this year, J. Cole fully ignited the feud that had been simmering for years with his seemingly innocent bars in his guest verse on Drake’s “First Person Shooter.”
“Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/We the big three like we started a league,” he raps.
Kendrick, apparently irked by the comparison, dropped an incendiary verse, mostly towards Drake, on Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” and the rest is history.
Cole would respond to “Like That” with “7 Minute Drill,” on the now-ironically titled Might Delete Later, but days after it released he said the track didn’t sit right with his spirit and within a week, it was removed from streaming services.
Self-reflection, maturity, and spiritual discernment are all commendable and part of what makes Cole so likeable. But the false start felt out of character, and didn’t line up with the thoughtful guy we all rallied behind 10 years ago. After releasing 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Cole spoke about his complicated feelings toward rap beef with Smiley.
“It sells. People like that. … On one hand, it is just a quick way to get some attention on you. On the other hand, it is like a real petty jealousy and insecurity,” he said. “… (Hip-hop) can be the most powerful art form, but I feel like when you throw competition into the mix, it dilutes it or like it takes away from the art form and it becomes about ego, which is really just fueled by insecurity.”
With 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Cole had this swagger, this confidence that he had nothing to prove. “Fire Squad” and “G.O.M.D.” are tracks clearly meant to be braggadocious bangers. On the former track, Cole sprinkled in thought-provoking words like asking why white people seemed to have “snatched the sound,” and the video for the latter tells the story of a slave rebellion led by Cole.
The production on 2014 Forest Hills Drive also showed why Cole was on top of the rap game. The snappy snares on the Willie B-produced “‘03 Adolescence” leading into the haunting chimes of “A Tale of 2 Citiez” is still a moment. The violin, horns, and drums on “St. Tropez” create an ethereal effect. The piano-tinged electronic synth beat of “Hello” could easily fit as the soundtrack for a circuit on “Mario Kart.”
The 2014 Forest Hills Drive album cover features the superstar rapper sitting on the roof of his childhood home, hands folded in his lap, sneakers dangling and eyes gazing into the distance. Maybe he was staring out at his old neighborhood reminiscing on simpler times. Maybe he was gazing past the horizon at the glamorous life he once thought he wanted.
On the haunting “A Tale of 2 Citiez,” he addresses this by saying, “Small town n*gga, 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, til you get it, how could you know?”
And the prayer at the end seeking forgiveness and direction still elicits goosebumps.
I moved to Los Angeles after college, somewhat chasing the same dream Cole was when he moved to New York of wanting to be somebody. I thought I was going to “make it” and live the rest of my life there. I had many great experiences, but I did eventually move back to Denver to be with my family. I don’t regret any of my time in Los Angeles, but can relate to Cole and 2014 Forest Hills Drive even more now that I’ve tasted a bit of the glitz and glam and ended up coming back to my roots.
“A Tale of 2 Citiez” presents the stories of two people: one person trying to get out of the hood by writing raps and another person who sells drugs, embracing the environment he’s trapped in.
This is an extension of Cole’s knack for storytelling. One of the first songs that made me a J. Cole fan was “Lost Ones” off his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story where he details an argument between a man and a woman who he got pregnant. Cole indeed has a special gift to be able to tell both sides of a story and evoke such raw emotion.
A lot of his sophomore album, Born Sinner, came from a place of darkness after receiving the Hollywood treatment and feeling empty. Songs like “Trouble,” “Rich N*ggaz” and “Let Nas Down” bared his soul as he wrestled with failing himself and others.
With 2014 Forest Hills Drive, it felt like Cole had pulled himself out of the darkness and was returning to the light by reconnecting with his foundation. He was inviting each of us to do the same.
It was evident that Cole was on the other side of his deepest battles because, while the album highlights his incredible ability to reflect, it also showcases his fun-loving nature.
“Wet Dreamz” is his cheeky storytelling on full display as he describes a guy getting nervous and trying to be cool before losing his virginity. The music video being literal puppy love showed that Cole knew the song was silly, but that’s part of what made him endearing.
A slept-on gem is “Apparently.” It opens up with a show-tune piano and gives a glimpse into Cole freeing himself of a creative process, keeping his faith, and thanking his mom for providing the best childhood she could. Similar to “Wet Dreamz,” the line “I’m hot dog, catchup (ketchup) to me” elicits a laugh, but Cole is self-aware enough to comment, “couldn’t resist.” And it makes us believe in him even more.
“No Role Modelz” is a classic. You know how it goes… “One time for my L.A. sisters…” On the track, Cole bemoans how his people, both men and women, can’t discern between right and wrong because so many of them, including himself, had, well, no role models. He takes ownership of his flaws, including misogyny and a hunger for fame. And of course, he is nostalgic for the days “when you could get a platinum plaque without a melody,” not knowing how this album would make its own history going platinum.
Why was Cole so vulnerable on songs like this, something that had fans flocking to him?
“I’m a bedroom artist,” he said in the interview with Smiley. “… So I had these songs that would like say super personal details about my life or really give you insight that some people might find embarrassing or might not want to reveal that type of information. But for me, no one was listening.
“I don’t really talk about my problems with my friends. I’m a real introverted person, so that was my way of getting it out. And I never thought about the other part of, yo, somebody’s gonna hear this.”
But lots of people heard it. And loved it. “No Role Modelz” has 2.4 billion Spotify streams to date.
“Love Yourz” — widely considered one of the best songs in Cole’s discography — still gives the chills. !llmind, Cardiak, and CritaCal joined forces for the beat. The snare drums paired with the piano create the duality needed to understand that “there’s beauty in the struggle” and “ugliness in the success.” The song is the answer to the question of Cole’s eyes gazing out on the album cover and the question posed on “A Tale of 2 Citiez” of if someone has to really see if the grass is greener on the other side. After experiencing what he has, Cole promises his fans, “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours. No such thing, no such thing.”
“That sums up the entire album,” Cole told Smiley.
When this song came out, it helped keep me grounded. As a college student who was living away from home with a world of possibilities in front of her, it was something I needed. The message is one that keeps me centered still today.
Looking back, 2014 Forest Hills Drive was indeed a glimpse into Cole letting himself free. A sign of this is how he was starting to grow his hair out. He later expressed this liberty more fully by letting his locs dangle in his face and driving Bentley Bentaygas in the mud in the video for “Middle Child.” The gentle crooning on this album opened the floodgates for the moaning that he exhibited throughout his next album, 4 Your Eyez Only.
While “platinum with no features” had its moment and was driven into the ground by his staunchest supporters (even though there were a handful of concealed features on the project), Cole has evolved from a ball-dominant scorer to more of a facilitator in recent years. Since 2014 Forest Hills Drive, he has shared his platform with others freely, in particular artists on his Dreamville imprint.
Two Dreamville compilations, Revenge of the Dreamers II and especially Revenge of the Dreamers III, showed his masterful ability to bring artists together. The third installation of the series shook up the industry thanks to a legendary boot camp that resulted in hits like “Down Bad,” “LamboTruck,” “Wells Fargo,” “Sleep Deprived,” “Costa Rica” and the thoughtful “Sacrifices.”
2014 Forest Hills Drive was the last J. Cole album I bought. It still hurts my heart to say that 4 Your Eyez Only was incredibly disappointing. It came at a time in my personal life where I needed Cole’s fierce authenticity and confident duality and I simply didn’t get that. I did like KOD much better, but by that time, I had kind of already moved on. Something felt like I outgrew Cole. But I can always look back on the hungry college student that woke up early to get 2014 Forest Hills Drive and know that she was taken care of.
