Words: Casey Brown & WhoSampled staff
Little more than a couple of weeks ago, J. Cole looked set to rocket from sideline story to spotlight. The release of the ‘Truly Yours’ EP earlier in the year had, if not cemented his reputation as a major player, at least created a strong sense of anticipation around this long player. The few tracks to have surfaced prior to official release, including a well received collaboration with Miguel, were riding high in our hot samples list. That anticipation however was all but stopped in its tracks by Kanye‘s ‘Yeezus’ (released the same day), which it’s fair to say pretty much eclipsed ‘Born Sinner’s media attention leaving it somewhat starved of column inches. But in spite of that pretty major setback, sales have been strong and, after Yeezus / Magna Carta related content, it remains the most popular current release featured on the site.
Approaching ‘Born Sinner’ with a critic’s eye, one could easily dismiss Cole as the latest artist to have hopped on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘honest-hip-hop’ bandwagon but as a complete album it’s not unsuccessful in taking the listener through the ups and downs he’s faced to find his own voice. As the name suggests, ‘Born Sinner’ seeks to follow in the tradition of those great introspective albums that tread the right side of the line between honesty and self-indulgence. It’s a feat that few major league rappers have achieved – think Jay-Z, Scarface, Kanye for successful examples. And it’s evident from the outset that Cole would like to see himself amongst that sort of company. Giving Cole the benefit of the doubt, the regular references to and quotes from hip hop’s greats could be seen as a means of dealing with the struggle he faces to live up to his legendary predecessors. Being less kind, it could be perceived as an unsubtle attempt to force himself into the company of the genre’s upper echelons by association, a tried and tested tactic adopted by the likes of The Game and his constant references to Compton’s rap forefathers.
General critique aside, on to the samples!:
1. Villuminati (samples J. Cole’s ‘Born Sinner’, Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Juicy‘, R Kelly’s ‘I Wish’ (Remix) and interpolates Jay-Z’s ‘Public Service Announcement’ and Trinidad James’ ‘All Gold Everything’)
The album’s opener dives directly into the referencing of two of the genre’s most lauded artists with the line “sometimes I brag like Hov” (a reference of course to Jay-Z) and a prominent sample from Biggie‘s 1994 classic ‘Juicy’, the title quote, “born sinner, opposite of a winner”. But the references don’t end there. The verses are practically a word-search of famous names with everyone from Justin Timberlake to ‘Rap City’ host Big Tigga getting a look in.
The track with closes out another line from ‘Juicy’: ”Now I’m in the limelight cause I rhyme tight / Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade”, alongside yet another reference to Jay-Z in the form of a quote from ‘Public Service Announcement’: “allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Cole.”
In so far as the track’s musical backdrop is concerned, the song opens with a pitched down sample of Cole’s own ‘Born Sinner’ featuring James Fauntleroy delivering a gospel-esque hook re-appropriated to give a broody intro to the pacier, darker setting of ‘Villuminati’ which then gives way to an orchestral sample borrowed from R Kelly’s ‘I Wish (Remix) (To the Homies That We Lost)’, forming the backbone of the track from thereon in. It’s arguably a curious blend, but it works.
2. Land of the Snakes (samples Outkast’s ‘Da Art of Storytellin’ (Part 1)’)
Cole opens the song with a shout out to one of the beats that made him: “This the shit I used to roll down Lewis Street with”. The “shit” he’s talking about is Outkast’s ‘98 album, ‘Da Art of Storytelling’, the synthy-twang of which introduces a layer of punchy near-Neptunes-esque drums. It’s ominous. In Outkast’s track it’s a flag that this song, which starts out sounding like your average femme fatale joint, ends in tragedy. André‘s verse tells a story about Sasha Thumper, a girl who was found dead and pregnant “with a needle in her arm”. Cole, however, has a different story to tell. The “hump in his back”, to quote Outkast’s hook, is a story about his own sins, misogyny, self-reflection and revenge.
3. Runaway (samples Mike Epps’ ‘Detective Women’)
Cole may be sampling comedians, but this track isn’t funny. It’s a track about having cold feet in a relationship and the fear of settling. And, in the last verse, Cole speaks of slavery, racism, and the violence that explains his grandmother’s light skin. The song begins with laughter though: he introduces the track with Mike Epps’s ‘Detective Women’, a skit about two-faced lovers. The sample is at best vaguely topical and at worst detached from the song’s more somber content.
4. Power Trip (samples Hubert Laws’ ‘No More’)
Riffing off a prominent flute sample from Hubert Laws‘ early 1970s CTI material, ‘No More’ from the ‘Morning Star’ album, the track fuses the mid ’90s practice of sampling ’70s jazz fusion with the trademark sonics of 2013 production – crunchy pitched down drums and a grinding synth bass. It’s Miguel’s chorus hook that really makes the track though, bringing the multiple layers into a coherent whole.
5. She Knows (samples Cults’ ‘Bad Things’)
Like ‘Runaway,’ ‘She Knows’ also deals with commitment troubles, although this time we’re at the club and the musical backdrop to the tale is more upbeat accordingly. The track consists primarily of a pretty unadulterated loop from ‘Bad Things’ by Cults, an experimental pop band that surfaced not long after Cole. The track’s hook also borrows from the Cults with the line “run-run away run-run away run-run away and never come back”, this time the lyrical content fitting far more neatly with the song’s sentiments here than the sample used in ‘Runaway’.
6. Rich N****Z (samples Telepopmusik’s ‘Into Everything’)
Cole informs us that this is “a song to sing along when you down” and the downtempo snap of a lightweight drum track over gently plucked harps reflects that mission statement. Cole’s sampling of French pop-electronica artists Telepopmusik’s 2005 track, ‘Into Everything’ encourages comparisons with Kendrick Lamar’s sample of Beach House in ‘Money Trees’ and the track is successful in creating a similarly hypnotic backdrop for a more reflective brand of lyrical content.
7. Forbidden Fruit (samples Ronnie Foster’s ‘Mystic Brew)
Speaking of Kendrick Lamar, he appears here to deliver the hook on ‘Forbidden Fruit’. It’s here that Cole takes his attempt to place himself amongst hip hop’s great to new heights. Not content with calling in one of the past year’s most hyped vocalists as guest, the track lifts its central loop from Ronnie Foster‘s ‘Mystic Brew’, a track that will forever hold an association with A Tribe Called Quest‘s all time classic 1993 album ‘Midnight Marauders’. Re-using that sample in such similar fashion to Tribe’s ‘Electric Relaxation’ is a brave move, and one likely to attract unfavourable comparisons with the earlier use. Apparently unphased by the prospect of going head to head with those above him in stature, Cole even goes so far as to make express reference to releasing an album on the same day as Kanye, a gamble which, as we’ve seen, didn’t entirely pay off (at least not where media attention is concerned). Neither, it has to be said, did taking on the masters of sampling jazz-funk at their own game with the over all result here feeling somewhat lackluster in comparison with the Tribe classic.
8. Chaining Day (samples Sly, Slick & Wicked’s ‘Sho’ Nuff’)
The relationship we get a window into this time round is Cole’s complicated relationship with chains, Jesus pieces, platinum, and diamonds: “they even iced out Jesus’ hair”. The sparkly opening of Sly, Slick, and Wicked‘s ‘Sho’ Nuff’ loops its way throughout the song, almost as though the soundscape itself is iced-out. But the song is darker than a simple wide-eyed dedication to ice. Cole at one point (not unlike Kanye’s ‘New Slaves‘) plays on the comparison between ‘chains’ and ‘chained’. It’s interesting to note that the same sample source formed the backdrop to Justin Timberlake’s Timbaland produced 2013 comeback ‘Suit & Tie’, and the near identical inclusion of the horn blasts followed by a shift from full pace to half time suggests this may be more intention than coincidence.
9. Crooked Smile (samples Jennifer Hudson’s ‘No One Gonna Love You’)
Get ready for another overt ’90s reference on ‘Crooked Smile’. ’90s R&B stars TLC make a reappearance to sing a catchy hook to Cole’s chorus reminiscent in some ways of ‘Nobody’s Perfect,’ a track from Cole’s previous album whose hook featured Missy Elliott. This time, however, the hook isn’t the highest voice on the track. Jennifer Hudson’s vocal from ‘No One Gonna Love You’ gets a high-pitched re-work which, when accompanied with the chorus of vocals that appear on the track’s outro is very much reminiscent of ‘College Dropout’ era Kanye.
10. Let Nas Down (samples Fela Kuti & The Afrika 70′s ‘Gentleman’ and interpolates Nas’ ‘Nas Is Like’)
If you got to this song on the album and still haven’t realized Cole’s penchant for self-effacing stories, this track will thro tat concept in your face. The born sinner has “been to hell and back”. In other words he made the chart-topping ‘Work Out’ that launched him to notoriety and dealt with any fall out that accompanied that success. Some, including Cole’s idol Nas, saw the track as a sellout and as a result, Cole’s rap comes in the form of a defense, maybe even an apology. After a serious hurt, Cole has made a serious hit. Even the soundscape riffs with a contemplative sax groove lifted from ‘Gentlemen’ from Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and his Afrika 70. The sample imparts a sense of reverence, and just like it borrows from musical greats, so does the other reference, a direct quote from Nas himself which opens the song. Cole has literally put Nas’s words in his own mouth, like he’s delivering the words of the man who, to quote Cole, “wrote the Bible”.
In this case it seems that lyrically placing himself in the company of the greats has yielded results with Nas himself appearing on the ‘Let Nas Down’ remix which surfaced shortly after the album’s release.
