“Might Delete Later” - J. Cole Album Review

The world of hip-hop was set ablaze following Kendrick Lamar’s scathing attack of his contemporaries on a track of Metro Boomin and Future’s “WE DON’T TRUST YOU” in late March of 2024.

Lamar, seemingly antagonized by years of subliminal disses from Drake, was finally brought over the edge following the release of Drake and J. Cole’s collaborative track “First Person Shooter,” leading him to go on the offensive with a generally well-received diss.

For years, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have been revered as the “Big Three” of modern hip-hop, due to their longevity, penmanship and commercial success. Throughout those years, a certain level of amiability has been maintained between the three. However, Kendrick has never been one to shy away from displaying his clear ambition to both reach and maintain his position at the top.

Big Sean’s “Control,” released back in 2013, featured Kendrick calling out who he viewed as the greatest M.C. 's of the time, stating “I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you N—-.” That list included J. Cole and Drake, setting the precedent for the long history of competition amidst the grouping of rappers.

After Kendrick released his verse on the Metro Boomin and Future album, everyone was buzzing in anticipation of who would respond first. And while most of Kendrick’s verse was him coming for Drake, this act of aggression was seemingly enough to spur J. Cole into dropping an entire mixtape just two weeks later, titled “Might Delete Later.”

The tape begins with genuinely one of the best J. Cole songs released in years in “Pricey,” featuring a stacked roster of Ari Lennox, Young Dro and Gucci Mane. The instrumental on this song is genuinely just everything one looks for in a J. Cole song, with it feeling rooted in the highs of his discography a la “Born Sinner,” while still feeling like an evolution of the sound, as modern and effective in tone-setting as ever.

However, it was disappointing to discover that the rest of the tape, on average, did not maintain the level of quality presented via the first track.

Many of the songs feel like throwaways, often with forgettable bars and even more forgettable, repetitive and progression-less instrumental backings.

That is not to say at all that there are no other highlights, far from it in fact, as songs like the summer-fun-oriented track “H.Y.B.” feature infectious hooks by Dreamville signee Bas, which naturally lead into energetic verses from Cole and U.K. rapper Central Cee. “Might Delete Later,” if it accomplishes nothing else, clearly solidifies the fact that Cole has not lost the touch of making catchy tracks while interlacing them with lyrically complex verses sure to please fans of skills such as rhyme scheme and double entendres.

However, despite the brevity of the project (12 tracks in total), there are a disconcerting amount of tracks that don’t just feel forgettable or lazy, but in fact genuinely displeasing to listen to. In particular, tracks such as “Huntin Wabbitz,” fall victim to an immersion-breaking fault of over-sampling, which breaks up an already struggling vibe of which the song fails to carry.

Perhaps most egregious of the entire project is the track “Pi,” featuring Ab-Soul and Daylyt, which does more than just overstay its welcome. Daylyt raps for nearly three minutes and just completely ruins the song, if the boring beat had anything going for it to be ruined in the first place.

This leads into a cringeworthy and disturbingly transphobic line delivered by Cole, directed towards Kendrick, which isn’t even worth mentioning here. Go listen to hear a line rivaling the bigotry and faux-intellectualism akin to the likes of someone like Tom MacDonald.

One other positive of the project is manifested in its ending two tracks, featuring the infectious “Trae The Truth In Ibiza,” which leads directly into the most discussed track, the full diss track “7 Minute Drill.”

While as a diss it serves more of a warning shot back at Kendrick, mainly stating to “watch yourself,” it certainly shows that Cole has the energy and the ammunition to indulge were the rap beef to escalate any further.

The song also features one of the best beat switches in recent history, transitioning from the up-tempo crazedness of the opening half to the grimy and dirty piano of the second.

There are many different lenses one can choose to evaluate this project through. Whether it be its success as a stand-alone project, an appetizer to lead up towards Cole’s much-teased album “The Fall Off” or solely as a response diss to Kendrick, it succeeds and fails in different ways.

With these viewpoints in mind, it is best to examine the project through a perspective that Cole himself brings up via the penultimate track “Make a few hits but you gotta live with the strikes too, Instead of pretending im some incredible n—a, just let ‘em hear all of it, The good, the bad, the ugly, the strong, the weak, it’s me.”

Needless to say, the project will certainly succeed in playing its part of resuscitating one of the largest rivalries in modern hip-hop, and keeping Cole fans musically fed whilst they await their main course, “The Fall Off.”

Rating: 7/10

Reviewer’s Favorite Tracks: “Pricey,” “H.Y.B.,” “Trae The Truth In Ibiza,” “7 Minute Drill”

Reviewer’s Least Favorite Tracks: “Huntin’ Wabbitz,” “Pi,” “Fever”

Trip Tagle is a first-year majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact them, please email tnt5403@psu.edu.