Cream of the Crop...

When it comes to the talk about hip-hop's newcomers, two names struck a debate. On one corner we have Toronto's own Drake and on the other Fayetteville, NC's and J. Cole. The two are often compared to each other a lot lately, and in my opinion they can't be.

Young Money soldier, Drake is at the peak of a promising career and has established himself as the only artist to ever be nominated for a grammy and a couple billboard hits without a label or album. So Far Gone will go down in history as one of the best mixtapes of all time simply because of its creativity and musical quality along with impact. Never have we seen such an impact with just one mixtape;the closest was 50 Cent but it was his debut album that peaked his momentum. Drake has been featured on Blueprint 3 and is the talk of almost everyone who is everyone.

RocNation/Jay-Z's first signee , J. Cole had a lot to prove this past year and boy did he ever. Aside from getting signed, Cole dropped the critically acclaimed mixtape, The Warm Up, which featured some of the best forms of lyricism ever presented by a newcomer. Vivid wordplay, insightful lyrics, and sharp punchlines found him, Mr. Cole, already being compared to some of rap's 'giants'. He also gained mainstream attention after landing a spot on Hov's 11th number 1 studio album, Blueprint 3. After numerous collabos with the likes of Wale (Rather Be With You, Beautiful Bliss***), Jay Electronica, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, B.o.B, and a feature on the front cover of The Source and XXL '10 Freshman List, Cole is definitely a force to be reckoned with.



When you choose to compare So Far Gone and The Warm Up, you notice that its difficult to compare the two artists because of their different styles and background. Drake sings and raps while Cole raps and produces (has nothing to do with the two but good to mention). Although the two talk about their lives, its evident that they come from two different worlds. Drake from a somewhat cleaner, so to speak, neighborhood and Cole from the army based hood in "Fayette-nam".

While Drake will definitely be mainstream with his content, Cole will conqueror the interests of many fans of underground hip-hop and some mainstream. Through his music, its evident that Cole is doing it for the craft instead of the popularity.

On the other hand, Drake does it to take it to a whole other level. Instead of sticking to one genre, he seeks to branch out avoiding to be labeled as just a hip-hop or r&b artist, which can sometimes hurt an artist's credibility.
"Over"


2nd Single off TML "Find Your Love"


Although they are different through their styles and content, its evident that this new breed of artists are capable of holding down the fort of this music thing. That's something many of us doubted 5years ago.

So who we got?
Simple, J. "Bitch I Got that Flame" Cole