He may have missed the Grammy nomination deadline by leaving it this late to release his new album, but we doubt he's likely to care. J Cole's 4 Your Eyez Only is likely to rank as one of the best rap albums of the year, accolades or not.

Just last week, the North Carolina gave us a taster of what to expect on his album with a blistering diss track aimed at all his contemporary rappers with over-inflated egos. True to his word, 4 Your Eyez Only is a no-frills album that favours minimal production furnishes that give prominence to Cole's lyrical dexterity.

Listen to the full album on Spotify: