He works well with guests his collaborations with Drake, Missy Elliott, and TLC are highlights in his growing body of work, and he gets along so well with Kendrick Lamar that the duo is rumored to have clandestinely recorded an EP together. He’s great at synthesizing everyman relationship woes into terse pop nuggets. He makes passable albums with memorable singles. Cole is a workmanlike MC, a good-natured populist grappling with the ridiculousness of sudden celebrity.
