4 Your Eyez Only is the fourth studio album by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on December 9, 2016, by Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records. The album was Cole's first release with Interscope—his previous albums were released by Columbia Records. 4 Your Eyez Only was released exactly two years after Cole's previous studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
Most of these recordings took place from 2015 to 2016, while the production on the album was primarily handled by Cole himself, alongside several other record producers such as Vinylz, Boi-1da, Cardiak, Ron Gilmore, Frank Dukes, Chargaux and Elite, among others. The album explores a variety of topics concerning the African American community including mass incarceration, racial discrimination, gang violence and depression. The two-part suite “She’s Mine” dives deeper into Cole’s emotions and provides the album with another perspective: hope. The album also touches on other topics such as love and fatherhood.
The album was supported by two singles: "Deja Vu," and "Neighbors". All 10 songs from 4 Your Eyez Only debuted in the top 40 of the US Billboard Hot 100. Cole achieved twelve simultaneous Hot 100 entries in a single week. Promoting the release, Cole released a one-hour documentary (by the same name) on April 15, 2017, on HBO, featuring music from the album. In June 2017, Cole embarked on the 4 Your Eyez Only World Tour, to promote the album.
4 Your Eyez Only debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 363,000 copies in its first week (492,000 with additional album-equivalent units), earning Cole his fourth consecutive number-one album in the country. It had the third-largest weekly sales for an album in 2016. The album also debuted at number one on Billboards Canadian Albums Chart. The reception for 4 Your Eyez Only was generally positive, with most critics praising the songwriting, and some calling it Cole's most mature album to date. It appeared on several music publications' year-end lists. On January 12, 2017, 4 Your Eyez Only was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and was certified Platinum on April 7, 2017.
Background
On July 29, 2016, DJ Khaled released his ninth album, Major Key, the fifth track of which, titled "Jermaine's Interlude", features Cole. During his feature on that track, Cole declares, "Said all I could say, now I play with thoughts of retirement"—a line that had fans of Cole's wondering about the future of his music career. In October 2016, while performing at a live concert, Cole said that it would be his "last show for a very long time." However, on December 1, with no announcement from Cole himself, a pre-order for his fourth studio album, titled 4 Your Eyez Only was made available on iTunes Store, with a release date for December 9, 2016. Dreamville Records revealed 4 Your Eyez Only official track listing on December 6 through their Twitter account. According to a Twitter rep, there were 2.7 million tweets mentioning J. Cole or 4 Your Eyez Only between December 7 to December 19, 2016. In January 2017, in an interview with The Huffington Post, Cole's manager and Dreamville president, Ibrahim Hamad revealed not even the label knew they would be releasing 4 Your Eyez Only until very late. By the time it actually came out only seven people had heard the album in its entirety.
Album artwork
The photo that forms the basis of the cover art was shot by Anthony "Supreme" Thompson, who is a photographer and a fan of Cole's. The photo was shot in an Atlanta neighborhood in September 2016. Thompson explained on Instagram:
The cover art was revealed when the album was made available for pre-order on iTunes. XXL named it one of the best cover arts of 2016.
Recording and production
The majority of the album was recorded at a home and recording studio in North Carolina that Cole nicknamed the Sheltuh. Some sessions also took place at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, over the summer of 2016. On March 18, 2016, an incident occurred at the Sheltuh that inspired the making of the track, "Neighbors", Dreamville in-house producer, Elite explained the situation in an interview with Complex, saying:
According to Elite the title track "4 Your Eyez Only" started the entire concept of the album, he said: