Born Sinner is the second studio album by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on June 18, 2013, by ByStorm Entertainment, Columbia Records, Dreamville Records and Roc Nation. The album serves as the follow-up to his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011). The album features guest appearances from Miguel, Amber Coffman, Jhené Aiko, James Fauntleroy, Bas, TLC, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent. The album was also primarily produced by Cole himself, along with others such as Jake One, Syience, and Elite.
Born Sinner was supported by four official singles; "Power Trip", "Crooked Smile", "Forbidden Fruit" and "She Knows", along with the promotional single "Miss America". The album received generally positive reviews from critics. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 297,000 copies in its first week of release. After two weeks of being at number two, Born Sinner climbed to number one in its third week. The album has since been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of December 2016, the album has sold 796,000 copies in the United States.
Background
Only a week after the release of his gold certified-debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story, Cole began working on his second album, Born Sinner. He said that it allowed him to, "reinvigorate himself both mentally and creatively." On October 24, 2011, during his interview with Hot 106's Rise & Grind morning show, Cole revealed that he had begun working on his second studio album, with hopes of releasing it in June 2012. He had also stated that the album would consist of songs that failed to make his debut: "I don't know how many, but I got songs that didn't make the last album that are automatically going to make this one." On February 24, 2012, J. Cole reached two million followers on Twitter, he celebrated by releasing the song "Grew up Fast." On March 1, 2012, J. Cole returned to his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. To celebrate his return, he released the song "Visionz of Home" (which launched an event, titled "Dreamville weekend") to inspire the youth of his hometown to achieve great things. On July 26, he returned to Twitter after a 100-day absence and went on to reveal and release his new song "The Cure" in where he hints at a new album. On October 20, he announced at a live show that his second album was complete and he would wait until after Kendrick Lamar released Good Kid, M.A.A.D City to reveal it and previewed two new songs, "Maine on Fire" and "Crooked Smile." However they were not tied to any project. "Maine on Fire" would end up appearing on a Funkmaster Flex mixtape.
On November 5, Cole revealed the title of his second album, and an album teaser for it, Born Sinner and the release date of January 28, 2013, via Ustream. With the title he ended his basketball-themed series of projects. He would say,
Recording and production On November 30, 2012, Cole said he feels the album will be better than his debut due to him being more free in creating this one. Most of the production will come from himself and most guest producers and features will be kept under wraps until the album release comes closer. He went onto say the features will be minor and key to the album. The album's production was primarily handled by J. Cole himself. Also in November 2012, Cole stated that the album is 90% completed including the writing and recording. Cole said he recorded four albums worth of material during the recording process for the album.
Promotion
J. Cole announced a release date of January 28, 2013, (his birthday) along with the album name on November 9, 2012. In early January the album was included on multiple "Most Anticipated Albums of 2013" such as MTV and XXL ranked Born Sinner the sixth most anticipated album of 2013. After describing the January release date as ambitious, he would announce on New Years Day 2013 that the album would be coming out at a later date. On February 22, 2013, J. Cole said that the album should arrive around June 2013. He later would confirm a release month for June, and then on April 8, 2013, J. Cole announced via Twitter that the album would be released on June 25, 2013. Interesting enough, that date would have been the seventeenth anniversary of the release of Jay-Z's debut album Reasonable Doubt. However, he announced on May 20, 2013, via his Twitter account that he would move the release up one week to June 18, 2013. He later revealed that he moved up the release date to coincide with the release of Kanye West's album Yeezus, saying "Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I was like, 'Yo…' The idea hit me instantly: 'You got to go to that date. I'm not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It'd be like, 'Oh and J. Cole dropped too, a week later.' Nah. I'm going to go see him on that date. He's the greatest. So it's like, I'm a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn't even a thought."
On February 12, 2013, Cole released a free EP titled Truly Yours in promotion of the album. The EP consists of five songs in their "raw form" that he knew would not make the cutlist for Born Sinner. Later on April 29, he announced that he would be releasing Truly Yours 2 the following day. The EP featured guest appearances by 2 Chainz, Young Jeezy and Bas, with production from Canei Finch, Jake One and J. Cole himself. Cole announced the deluxe version of the album will include an extra CD which will double as Truly Yours 3 and featuring 5 new songs. The track features 50 Cent and Bas, which Cole originally wanted to have 50 and Nas on the song.
J. Cole said there is a lot he wants to do that he didn't get to do on his last album because the label didn't know that he was going to come out and have the number-one album in the country so this time he hopes the promotion effort is way bigger. He plans to shoot a short film to accompany the album as well as multiple music videos. In promotion of the album Cole released several Born Sinner vlogs, the first video spotlighted Cole's mother and her former job of working at the post office, and her retirement. The second video spotlighted friend and frequent collaborator Kendrick Lamar. In the video he discusses his earliest musical influences and his work ethic. On June 6, 2013, J. Cole held one time listen sessions for the album in various places throughout North America. The following day the album leaked in full online via various peer-to-peer file sharing websites. Rather than go into crisis mode and attempt to remove it from online, Cole put the album up for a limited time free stream. Cole and Nas released "Let Nas Down (Remix)" on June 22, 2013. The remix was named one of the best songs of the first half of 2013 by Complex. On July 29, 2013, Cole announced What Dreams May Come Tour with fellow rapper Wale.
Singles The first promotional single from Born Sinner was "Miss America" and which released on November 13, 2012. Cole said he pushed away pop-accessibility in order to put out a single that provides social commentary. The song has been described by multiple outlets and Cole himself as not an ordinary first single and in no way directed towards radio. The song was used in Ubisoft's Launch trailer for the 2013 video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The song peaked at number 34 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
On February 12, 2013, J. Cole announced that the first official single from the album would be released in the next week. Two days later on February 14, he released the lead single, "Power Trip", a collaboration with Miguel. On April 9, 2013, the music video for the song was released. The song peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The second official single, "Crooked Smile" featuring R&B group TLC premiered on June 3, 2013. The song was made available on iTunes the following day. The music video for the song was released on September 18, 2013. It peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"Forbidden Fruit" featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar was the last song recorded for the album, as it contained a reference to him dropping his album the same day as Kanye West, who also released Yeezus on June 18, 2013. It was reported by MTV in June 2013, that it would be the album's third single. Then on August 1, 2013, it was sent to urban contemporary radio as Born Sinners third single. The song peaked at number 46 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
On October 29, 2013, "She Knows" featuring Amber Coffman, was serviced to urban contemporary radio as the album's fourth official single. It officially impacted rhythmic contemporary radio on November 19, 2013. The music video for the song was released on February 14, 2014. The song peaked at number 90 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Critical reception
Born Sinner was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on 21 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly said, "He's a talented, nimble rapper, but diatribes like "Trouble" and "Land of the Snakes" are more exhausting than impressive... The jazz-kissed "Let Nas Down", a deeply personal tale about hearing that one of his rap idols hated his early single "Work Out", delivers far greater impact without all the high-minded posturing about love and death." Erin Lowers of Exclaim! said, "With the exception of two numbers, the self-produced 16-track project revels in Timbaland drumlines ("Born Sinner") and soulful Kanye symphonies ("Chaining Day"). However, the standout cut samples A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation", featuring the only other rapper on the album: Kendrick Lamar. "Forbidden Fruit" embodies a silent confidence, paying homage to a legendary group while speaking on releasing an album the same day as Kanye West, bringing Born Sinner full-circle." Julia LeConte of Now said, "Born Sinners production, Cole's own, is nuanced and varied on the whole – looped harp, careful piano, electronic elements, boom bap drums, choirs everywhere – but all impeccably orchestrated." August Brown of the Los Angeles Times said, "If the self-mythologizing of Yeezus is a little much for you, how about a rap album where the MC is bummed that he disappointed his hero? J. Cole's Born Sinner is at the other end of the universe from Kanye West's latest – a quieter, self-examining rap record that's short on audacity but long on workman-like singles."