We didn’t want to confuse people with too much instrumentation. Part of the time-consuming process was taking songs like the title track, which is a nine-minute song and asking, how can we keep this interesting on a production level without overdoing it? We have so much music on all these songs, the hard part was taking stuff out.

With this album, it's a story with a specific message. There was a point to it because there was something he learned at the end with “Love Yourz”-that was the thesis. On 2014 Forest Hills Drive there was a personal narrative. How do you feel these themes shifted the sound of 4 Your Eyez Only compared to past projects?

Themes of marriage and fatherhood play a big role. The content of the album pivots from what he’s done before. He was always making music-I think it just took this much time to reach the level of clarity that he wanted. At this point he can afford to release music whenever it’s right. There’s not really pressure from outside sources, as much as internal pressure. I think people assume maybe something happened, but really he’s just doing song after song. He doesn’t like to tweet or put out pictures of himself in the studio. As far as really homing in on the album, maybe beginning of summer we started going to Electric Lady to home in on stuff.Ĭole is low-key. The other day, after the album was turned in, he came in to record two new verses. The Dreamville member played his biggest role yet in helping to shape the sound of this latest Cole project, one that fans and critics are still unpacking.Ĭomplex spoke with Elite by phone to get a behind-the-scenes look at his work on 4 Your Eyez Only, as well as the real story behind the standout song 'Neighbors,' which is described in the album credits as being 'inspired by true events.' Elite also responded to a fan theory about what Cole's new album is supposed to represent that's been circulating on the web.Ĭole never stops working. But there is another name billed as co-executive producer: Elite. Cole's new album, 4 Your Eyez Only, you'll notice the rapper/producer handled most of the production and all of the rapping (back to back platinum albums with no features seems inevitable).

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