Review: J. Cole Takes Control in Vancouver

“We’re friends,” smiled rap giant-in-waiting J. Cole four songs into his concert at Vancouver’s PNE Forum last night. “That means I can keep it real with you. I can tell you anything… I’ve been drinking a lot of Hennessey tonight.”

J. (Jermaine to his Mom) has a lot of things going for him in his ascent up the hip-hop ladder. He’s musically creative enough to ensure that every track he performed last night was a song, not just a beat. He’s vocally talented enough to croon slow jam “Lights Out” like a genuine r’n’b artist. He has stage presence: confidently giving shout outs to individual crowd members when he wasn’t throwing himself into his music.

But best of all, he appears to take only his art, not himself, that seriously. The result, the first concert of a North American leg of the ‘What Dreams May Come’ World Tour, was a contender for the first great Vancouver night out of 2014.

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There’s a difference between playful and modest. Cole was definitely not the latter bounding down the steps in the middle of a stage flanked by Corinthian columns for opener “Trouble.” Versatility was part of his instant entertainment arsenal, immediately delivering 70s soul throwback “Land of the Snakes,” angry Rage Against The Machine-tinged rap rock “Blow Up” and dark slow jam “Nobody’s Perfect,” featuring the rarest of spectacles, the welcome guitar solo at a rap show.

Despite confessing that he was in no condition to drive, Cole was eager to accelerate proceedings, ripping through bouncy Paula Abdul homage “Work Out,” a lively “She Knows” that finished with a blizzard of scratching, and a twerkalicious “Forbidden Fruit.”

Cole’s first misstep of the night was inviting friend and support act Bas, for the underwhelming smokin’ and sexin’ track “Lit.” Name-checking his buddy at the song’s end, Cole skirted the line between joke and diss.

“Never cheer for him,” he grinned as Bas left the stage. “I’m just telling you who he is.”

Drifting back to the 60s and 70s for the sonic inspirations for “Kenny Lofton” and “In The Morning,” the pace slowed to a crawl as Cole introduced his band, the cue for a punishing series of solos only redeemed by a pair of great vocals from his two female backing singers and a brief exhibition of the art of turntablism by DJ Dummy.

Rather than leap back into the hits, Cole spent the best part of five minutes surveying the crowd, asking what songs he should play next. The verdict? “Let Nas Down” and “Lost Ones,” coincidentally appearing in exactly the same places that they’ve been performed at every other concert on the tour.

But so what? In an evening that put fun on a pedestal over pretence, a slab of audience participation was the ideal appetiser for a grand finale of hands-in-the-air series of party tunes, “Can’t Get Enough,” “Crooked Smile” and “Power Trip.” In a cavernous hall full of revellers, the person that seemed to be having the best time was the guy in the middle of the stage, confident in the likelihood that the next time he plays Vancouver, it’ll almost certainly be at Rogers Arena.

“I go some places and I think, I’m almost Jay Z. I go to other places and I think, I’m almost J-Kwon. Remember him?

“Tonight feels a lot like Jay Z.”