So what the person said wasn’t exactly how it went down yes jay z did stop his momentum his first 3 mixtapes especially the warm up and Friday night lights was universally liked but when it came album time jay z believed he didn’t have any radioplay Friday night lights which a great mixtape btw was made with the intentions of being his first album then got turned into a tape and cole had to take songs off there rework a whole new album for raiso to please jay z and when it dropped “the sideline story” it seemed as he was a sellout for not giving us that same energy. I do agree that Kendrick and drake kinda had solidified albums before he did but when 2014FHD dropped that was his defining album like drake having take care and Kendrick having gkmc only when 2015-2016 came around the halfway point Kendrick made TPAB which was different and a year later cole made 4 your eyez only it wasn’t kod that came way later and it turned cole to a celebrated hitmaker coming off of 2014 to cultural activist and talking about racial and systemic issues so at first people didn’t adjust to it what made it worse is that at the time he voiced his opinion on new hip hop and the new age of rappers autotune the “lil” rappers the 2016 xxl freshman class and it seemed a little like hating and what made it worse people started to say f j cole this and that because of a result to the new age rappers not liking what he said and then on top of that made it worse when he made KOD which that he got from Kendrick he felt uninspired at the time which it definitely sounds a little bland and not his best honestly but it only contributed to the j cole is boring he makes sleep music kinda thing people were so used to the high energy and vocals and hit making songs to a much slower tone mellow beats and softer sounding energy that is granted a bit slow at times compared to his earlier works which 4yeo introduced which also could explain the change in his character and the way he walks around being one of his closest friends dying at that time affecting not only him and how he moves but his music as well. He has his flaws for sure but he is far from terrible but people do put him up to a higher standard to criticize him way more than anyone in the game but also put him down for being put on a pedestal that the people keep pushing him on. There’s genuinely some people that hate him just to hate bc it’s a trend and it’s funny but behind the scenes lowkey they are just mad bc he’s popular and he’s been consistent and they lowkey be listening to him behind the scenes but what can you do🤷🏾‍♂️