NYT reviews J. Cole concert

MESSAGE MEETS THE MARKETPLACE
By JON CARAMANICA

Take debut albums with a grain of salt these days, especially in hip-hop, where the robustness of the mixtape circuit and the Internet as a promotion vehicle have ensured that artists begin to form their identities and have entire careers long before the vampiric record business has its way with them. As they are, debut albums — with other people’s hands in the pie — tend to show artists who’ve been reformed and remolded. What other people want from them, it often turns out, isn’t what they wanted from themselves.

J. Cole, born Jermaine Cole, has released three wordy, impressive mixtapes in the past few years; for some of that time he’s been signed to Jay-Z’s label, Roc Nation. On Sunday night at Roseland Ballroom he celebrated the release this week of his debut album, “Cole World: The Sideline Story,” thus beginning the compromise phase of his career.

“Cole World” captures the struggle between Mr. Cole’s natural gifts and the perceived exigencies of the marketplace. On this album he’s a slick rapper who spends too much time shouting and a thoughtful rapper who wears his bawdiness awkwardly. When he’s growling about empty things, which is often, Mr. Cole sounds directionless and amateurish. But in moments in which he’s reflective, taking cues from rappers like Black Thought and Nas, he’s striking. “Breakdown,” about seeing his father for the first time in years, is moving. (“A whale could have swam in those tears, fam.”) And the highlight is “Lost Ones,” on which he raps back and forth with the mother of his unborn child — playing both parts — debating whether to keep it. READ MORE