Donnerstag, 15. November 2012

Good Kid, Cole World

2 things first:

1. This is not a blog post about Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. To me it is a huge album. Maybe it is even the best of this year besides Coexist, but since everybody and your mother already wrote about it, the internet doesn't need another article bragging about how great this thing REALLY is. For a random review go to one of your favorite DJ's favorite blogs; I mostly agree with mighty Pitchfork's version.

2. I will write this article in my lousy pidgin english, because I think that it could matter to people beyond the German speaking borders. Dear grammar nazis, if you find any mistakes you can keep them!

1 week ago, Jermaine Cole released a trailer in order to announce his sophomore album "Born Sinner". (Why do albums have trailers anyways? Probably Yeezy taught 'em...) It will see the light of day on january 28.  After the usual label braggadocio I'm sure that it will be released somewhere in spring 2013.
1 day ago, the very same guy released the first single called "Miss America" through iTunes. This was the kick off to the usual promotion madness of nowadays releases.



My "elaborated" opinion was even to be heard in the song lyrics:
"...and they'll never play this shit on the radio."
 ...Dude, if you have recognized the problem already by yourself:

Sure one could argue, that he never aimed for radio google airplay with this track. ("Google is the most powerful force in music nowadays, not radio.") He probably did this record for the rap music heads who care more about lyrics and song concepts than about the next David Guetta smash hit. I'm with you! But to praise it as such a great event (you know? Trailers and stuff?) and release it as a first promotional life sign for your album...strange marketing.
With the stuff this guy has on his harddrive, he could easily take the (desperate?) A$AP Rocky route; at least feature wise: There must must be more results from the 2011 tour overseas with Drake, than the (quite nice) "In the Morning" track. AND he is frequently working together with Kendrick.
3 weeks ago, this guy released Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, under surveillance of Dr. Dre, which propelled him to long avaited and well deserved stardom: 241K of first week sales, 2nd best first week sales in the rap category in 2012 (thank you, Nas), number two on the billboard 100 (thank you, Taylor) and magazine covers, magazine covers, magazine covers.
2 weeks ago, Kendrick threw some mean verses over a J.Cole production and called the outcome "The Jig is up", probably to thank his fans for the support:


Quite radio unfriendly as well, but the whole artistic potential of this song is a different one.
Which led me to a quite obvious idea:
2 years ago, Kendrick and Jermaine found out about their collaborative chemistry and made up plans to release a full length project together. During an in-store signing event in CA, Kendrick presented 2 rough versions of songs for their collabo project:
Temptation @ min4.38
Shock the World @ min7.10
After that video emerged, the internet went crazy (of course), but concerning the project, there didn't happen anything at all, until...
5½ months ago, not only Jermaine confirmed being back in the studio with Kendrick and working on the project again, but also pictures of the studio sessions emerged. Back then, they had "4 or 5 songs together".
Back then they decided not to rush that whole project and to make Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City top priority.
Today, this album, close to completion, must be somewhere on Cole's harddrive, patiently waiting to see the light of day...

To state the obvious:
Don't you guys think that releasing it now would be the optimal timing? I mean, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City blew up, just as expected, and with Born Sinner, Cole got his second album in the pipe line. Currently the guys at Dreamville/Rocnation are half-assing the promo run with this mediocre "Miss America". This Kendrick/Cole collabo album at this point of time could help both artists: Kendrick Lamar to cement his status in the game and J.Cole to promote his sophomore properly! Even money wise it would make much sense: Interscope decided to let Kendrick be Kendrick on his major debut, and people thanked the label with huge sales. Don't you think that the very same people (me included) would be willing to pay good money for that Kendrick/Cole project?
Just take the same route, you took with Section.80/Habits&Contradictions/Control System, and release that project via iTunes. 
Santa Claus and everybody who cares about real music would appreciate this.
Dear Kendrick Lamar and dear J. Cole, could you please shock the world?