Jay-Z’s The Blueprint had plenty of hits, and it’s a pivotal record in the man’s career and arguably in the history of rap itself. But when the album was about to come out, all anyone could talk about was Jay savaging Nas and Mobb Deep on “Takeover.” The same thing happened when Nas was getting ready to release Stillmatic: He released “Ether,” and “Ether” dominated the conversation. (That same shit-talking probably hastened the crumbling of his empire a few years later, but that’s a story for a different time.) A couple of years later, 50 Cent built an entire empire on shit-talking. He came to fame being the relatable rapper, the guy next door, the one who raps about people’s everyday lives. But people’s everyday lives no longer have anything to do with everyday life as Cole himself presumably lives it. Cole is now one of the three or four most popular rappers on the planet. As he’s getting ready to release the new 4 Your Eyez Only later this week, he has to find some way to acknowledge that relatively new reality.
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