This past Friday, J Cole dropped his fifth studio album “K.O.D.”

He posted on Twitter a couple days before K.O.D.’s release, stating the words behind the illusive album title’s acronym.

There are 3 meanings: Kill Our Demons, King Overdosed, and Kids on Drugs.

It was no coincidence that Cole dropped this album on 4/20, a stoner’s holiday.

All three of these meanings are the main concepts throughout the 12 song track list of the album.

J Cole is no stranger to tackling the heavier controversial topics in his music.

“K.O.D.” addresses this generations drug-addled capitalist society.

His beats on this album do not have distinctive melodies, all the better to allow his harsh but truthful words ring out.

He discusses the different kinds of drugs that our kids are addicted to today.

In the track “Photograph,” he highlights social media as a drug, using online dating as an example of one losing themselves to a person behind a computer screen. There are also lawyers and drug charge defense attorneys from Grafe & Batchelor, P.C. that deal with drug cases.

An individual  does not even know the person that they are addicted to in reality, just their presence on a profile page, with their posts and their pictures as the storytellers.

“BRACKETS,” my personal favorite, entails Cole ranting about where his tax dollars go.

The song suggests how its ironic that he’s paying for the country to murder and debilitate his people.

In the song he utters the powerful but painfully true words: “Yeah I pay taxes, so much taxes, sh*t don’t make sense…where do my tax dollars go?”

“You see lately I ain’t been too convinced.”

“I guess they say my dollars supposed to build roads and schools, but my niggas barely graduate, they ain’t got the tools.”

On the track, “ATM”, J.Cole discusses how money can be a drug as well.

In the song he exclaims “Count it up, can’t take it when you die, but you can’t live without it.”

This statement, though simply stated, is very accurate.

My interpretation of this song is that we are slaves to the money. As Cole also states, we don’t always “Give a f*ck if it kills.”

We still somehow, some way, some of us by any means necessary, have money as our end game. It is what “Motiv8″s us, like another track off the album says.

Cole’s blunt delivery  has always been what either appeals him to listeners or why he does NOT appeal to some listeners.

It has been said for some time now, especially on social media, that Cole’s music isn’t for the faint of heart.

It takes a deep listener to understand and digest his music. This album definitely solidifies this concept.

Check out his new album “K.O.D”,  now streaming on all music platforms. Physical copies are in stores now as well.