About mid-way through his performance at the 3Arena, just before J. Cole begins singing ‘Lights Please’ from his debut album Cole World, the faithful members the crowd seem to have the collective knowledge that the artist has underestimated the sheer multitude of people who stand on duty to sing all of his lyrics back to him, chorus and verse. “6 or 7 people might know this one,” he estimates before the song begins. I’d say that, based on the din of the crowd, the real numbers are well into three-digit territory. He gives the Dublin audience credit for their impressive showing. One thing is clear - Irish people are out in their numbers to get a chance to see one of the best rappers in the game.
Emerging onto the stage against the backdrop of a prison yard setting (with the band strategically placed behind prison walls so that Cole - in an orange jumpsuit - is front and centre), the crowd’s immediate passion for the young North Carolinian rapper is alive and dangerous. Literally, in this case, The audience’s surge to get to the front before the gig even begins means that people at the barrier are under threat of being crushed. Cole himself has to avert this crisis early on by imploring people to take a step back or else they'll be forced to cancel the show. It’s no easy task when his presence is just that magnetic.
He begins the set by raining down a serious of tracks from the album that this tour is supporting, 4 Your Eyez Only. ‘Ville Mentality’ and ‘Déjà vu’ are incredibly well executed, while the rapper seems to overstretch his voice during the energetic chorus of ‘Immortal’.
Just before an incredibly smooth duet with Ari Lennox for ‘Change’, J. Cole takes the time to pay his respects to his great grandmother, who, he tells us, sailed on a boat from Ireland 90 years ago, bound for America. “I don’t think she’d have believed I’d come all the way back and sell out an arena here,” he says, heart-on-sleeve.
The second act of the night features a mix of tracks from throughout Cole’s career, with highlights coming in the form of ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ and indelible love-song ‘Foldin Clothes’.
Midway through ‘Neighbours’ (also from his latest album), he asks the audience whether they know what the meaning behind the song is, before showing actual real life footage of a local SWAT team breaking down the doors of a house he bought in a ‘nice neighbourhood’ in North Carolina. Evidently, the predominantly white neighbours were under the impression that a black man hanging out with other black men in his home meant that drugs were almost certainly being dealt and that tactical law enforcement needed to be called…Truly shocking.
The third act rounds things off nicely with songs coming mostly from 2014 Forest Hills Drive, undoubtedly J. Cole’s finest record. ‘Love Yourz’ and ‘Wet Dreams’ shows the rapper at his rawest and most earnest, while ‘G.O.M.D’ attacks the complacency of modern rap, as well as his own arrogance.
The encore continues in this vein, with take-no-prisoners closer ‘No Role Modelz’. The sample of George Bush infamously bungling the ‘Fool Me Once’ proverb live on TV, followed by J. Cole’s refrain “Fool me one time shame on you/Fool me twice, can’t put the blame on you/Fool me three times, fuck the peace sign/Loads the chopper, let it rain on you” will never not be gloriously satisfying. A winning way to end the night.