Sneak Peak Album Review of The Warm Up by J Cole

I first heard about the artist J Cole during an interview that Jay-Z did with Angie Martinez who is a radio personality at Hot 97 which is a radio station in New York. He said that he felt either J Cole, Drake or Wale would be the next great rap star in Hip Hop and I took note of this. I went to look him up and according to his website he is a graduate of St. John's University who basically worked on his material while going to school. He graduated at the top of his class and then became known for appearing on an album track for Wale. The first time I heard him was on Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3" album and then I went to Ticketmaster and decided to look up Jay-Z.

I was surprised to find that Jay-Z would be appearing with Wale and J Cole on his tour and when I attended the shop I loved his performance and became fond of his music. He has compared himself to Andre 300 (of Outkast), Nas, 2pac and even Jesus when he raped over the beat for the track "I Really Mean It". While I can't say that I think he is just as great as God, I thought he has a lot of talent and that's why I pre ordered his album titled "The Warm Up" via Mixunit but decided to listen to the CD via YouTube so that I would know the material I would receive when it eventually ships to me.

The CD includes 22 tracks in total and just one of these is an introduction so there is a lot of material here. Most of the lyrics are what you would call "Emo Rap" much like you would someone like Kid Cudi or the material on "808s And Heartbreak". The material is about pain and finding a purpose in life. Living life the hard way and making it through those troubles, I can relate to those and I enjoy every track on this CD. The best songs on the CD are "Just To Get By", "Heartache", "Get Away" and "Warm Up" but all of these are essentially about living in a cold world and making it through from day to day. This is a CD I would suggest that you pick up if you like artists like Pink or Bright Eyes and I rate it a 4/5.