Might Delete Later by J. Cole | Album Review

a surprise drop from the lyricist

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A couple years removed from The Off Season and a few weeks following touring with Drake, J. Cole has released a surprise album, much in the fashion of midnight pining, titled Might Delete Later with a myriad of features without warning. Perhaps feeling a bit slighted from the toppling of the “Big 3” fantasy via Kendrick Lamar, Cole returns, in what is assumed to be the twilight of his rapping days, to deliver a presumed rebuttal. Without further adieu, let’s dive in.

As the caption may hint, this is no coy, “felt cute, might delete later,” passage, rather a cut-throat retaliation in “Pricey.” “Your shit ain’t addin’ up, no, you a phoney, check your image/ Rappin’ tough, but all them niggas in your audience is bitches/And white boys mostly,” Cole raps over the hard knocks of a bass better suited for the lifted Cadillacs on stacked rims.

You can imagine the multi-colored glint rolling slowly through the arena, the battlefield that Cole describes calmly owning, despite the gunfire, blaring Dro, who makes an appearance here. An otherwise headbob-inducing track, it’s capped with an uninspired Gucci reading a script that Cole almost certainly provided him, betraying what could’ve been a thoughtful shot back to…