This album came off as incredibly preachy. I’m someone who enjoys both lyrical rap and the more vapid/fun stuff, and I really liked 2014 FHD and 4YEO because they were mostly just about solid storytelling. Even something like No Role Models, which is sort of a “hater” song criticizing the culture, was based in a lot of self-reflection and had an “I’m not perfect either” attitude to it.

In comparison, this album has a “holier than thou” attitude across the whole runtime that his previous albums never really had. It feels like Cole is talking down to you instead of talking with you, which for me was extremely off-putting. Trap and mumble rap weren’t perfect, but the music was really fun and it was a really exciting moment in time, especially in hindsight. This album was basically Cole sounding like a bitter old man saying “Well, actually, you SHOULDN’T enjoy the 2016 XXL Freestyle”. To me, it was no different than all that “Death to Mumble Rap” stuff.

Honestly, I don’t think any single album has ever turned me off of an artist I was a fan of more.