The old rap cliché goes: you spend your whole life making your debut album. For J. Cole, he spent his whole life making the third album.
In December 2014, about a year and a half after releasing his hit sophomore album, Born Sinner, J. Cole dropped 2014 Forest Hills Drive—a soulful, intimate, and deeply personal album that tells Cole's life story. Unlike the first two albums, which featured Cole trying to conform to the major label system, there were no big singles or big guest appearances.
Instead, Forest Hills Drive is a considered, inward look at who Cole was and where he came from. And the album was birthed after a turbulent time.
In 2013, J. Cole felt lost. He'd released the biggest album of his career and was touring all over Europe, but something was off. He felt new pressure from his rising popularity and realized he needed to go home.
He went to Fayetteville, North Carolina and purchased the four-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot house he grew up in. The address? 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The "2014" works as a double meaning—it's both the address and the year the album came out.
That album took Cole into another stratosphere as an artist, delivering a new level of commercial success while also becoming a hip-hop classic and one of the best releases of the 2010s. From "No Role Modelz," the song he now closes shows with, to "Love Yourz," arguably his best track, the album is stacked with standout moments.
It's still his best work—no disrespect to those who love his latest album, The Fall Off. But how well do you actually know it?
Take the quiz and test your knowledge: how well do you know J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive?