The second it felt like he was deviating from the evening’s narrative, J. After opening the show with the first four songs from “4 Your Eyez Only” (“For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Immortal,” “Deja Vu,” and “Ville Mentality”), he promised to perform the album in its entirety - but not without reaching back into his catalogue: his 2009 breakthrough “Lights Please,” “Nobody’s Perfect,” from his 2011 debut album “ Cole World: The Sideline Story,” and “Forbidden Fruit” from 2013’s “ Born Sinner,” to name a few.
J cole immortal 4 your eyez only windows#
But atop a stage adorned with barbed wire, barred windows and clusters of surveillance cameras, his performance felt more one-man theatrical display than prison-yard soliloquy.
![j cole immortal 4 your eyez only j cole immortal 4 your eyez only](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7lYxK7Rhh1I/maxresdefault.jpg)
Cole’s entry was quite literally a staged imprisonment. Cole doubled down on the album’s theme and one thing that’s made his name one of the biggest in rap: speaking from the heart.ĭressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by security guards, J. And during a very good, very detail-oriented performance at Verizon Center Tuesday (the venue became Capital One Arena on Wednesday morning), J. He’s had ample time to think about the best use of his platform, be it recently visiting inmates at San Quentin State Prison in California or using his most recent album, “ 4 Your Eyez Only,” as a semi-fictional microscope for the fragility of life told largely from a friend’s perspective. The 32-year-old moved back to his native North Carolina after years in New York, becoming a husband and father and living with much-valued privacy. Cole has withdrawn from the public eye in recent years.
Regardless, the rapper remains committed to that honesty - and most importantly, to himself.ĭespite his swelling popularity, J. It’s the defining characteristic that endears him to his millions of adoring fans, but for critics who only find snore-inducing banality in his candor, it’s a high crime.