Written and Photographed by Jayvee Banez
Hey everyone, welcome back to REVIZE.BLOG! I’ve taken a small hiatus to focus on reality. Current times seem like I’m on a boat in an ocean with some rocky waves. I’m constantly having to maintain my balance and this ocean called “Life” is throwing challenges along my way. It’s difficult but it’s do-able. I can manage. I want to preface that this post will mainly allude to the topics of hip-hop and life.
Inspiration
First off, I have to say that I have been playing J. Cole’s latest album, The Fall-Off (2026), everyday since its release. If I were to name my Top 3 Songs from the entire collection – in no order: “Life Sentence”, “The Villest”, and “Bombs in the Ville/Hit the Gas”. Furthermore, I’ve been tuning into the series of videos he’s been releasing on YouTube. The videos are called “The Fall-Off: Trunk Sale” and are currently on Pt. 7 on J. Cole’s YouTube Channel.
Music has always been in my life. I always had a speaker in my room. I would wake up to MTV music videos as I got ready for school. E-40’s black and white music video for “Tell Me When To Go” was my wake-up anthem as a youngin’. I used to love flipping through CD cases in the cars that belonged to my relatives on my father’s side. Seeing J. Cole selling his CDs out of his trunk to people walking around the neighborhoods, the parking lots, and the school campuses makes me want to cop a CD right now!
This album feels like it’ll be one of hip-hop’s greatest creations, in my opinion. Maybe there’s some bias coming from a dude who has been listening to J. Cole since 2011-ish. 15 years later, J. Cole still remains as my all-time, favorite rapper/artist. His discography reveals the stories of his experiences as he grew as a person. The words and the imagery he provides in his story-telling … They are just things that I found myself relating to in some crazy way. It’s important for me to mention that although I didn’t have the same upbringing as a Black person growing up in America, I understand I come from a place of privilege as a Filipino-American.
Admittedly, I was not a fan since day one. I mentioned becoming a fan with his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album. When music streaming was popping off in the early 2010s, I primarily used Pandora. From there, my dive into hip-hop really started. In my list of streaming radios, I had Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake. J. Cole would come on every now and then with some tracks off of his Cole World: The Sideline Story album. He had my attention but I wasn’t truly captivated until Forest Hills Drive.
Besides that, the song J. Cole surprisingly released as a single from “The Fall-Off” was “DISC 2 TRACK 2”. It’s official name on the album is “The Fall-Off is Inevitable”. Back to relating to Cole, he started to get me to look at my life in reverse. A concept that Nas did on the track, “Rewind”, from his Stillmatic (2001) album – J. Cole gives you a broader story of his life going backwards vs Nas – for lack of better words- blasting someone… Well anyways, I started getting inspired to look back at my life and see how far I’ve came.
Reflection
After the countless replays on my off-time, the overall theme of the 2026 album is like a homecoming celebration for J. Cole. “TWO SIX” is announced numerous times across the rapper’s career in his discography. There are direct sources from J. Cole explaining the importance of “Two Six” or “2-6” but hip-hop enthusiasts have made connections to Fayetteville, North Carolina being in Cumberland County, the 26th in the state. Cole reminisces on the stories of his upbringing and homecoming in “The Ville” – short for Fayetteville; rapping about old acquaintances from his past, old chicks he used to mess with, an interaction with a fan at a gas station, and finding love and starting a family.
For me, this album makes me reminisce on my hometown of Sunnyvale. It brings me back to when I felt like that kid on the sidelines, hopping on Halo 3 matchmaking under the gamertag “JBanez12”, hopping in the car with the homies to grab boba, dancing with the homies for our Comm Center Seshes, staying in parking lots hours after the boba spot closes, and riding my fixie-converted road bike around my neighborhood. “SV”, “the Bay”, and “408” was what I associated my hometown with. The Fall-Off makes me feel grateful for the town I grew up in. It wasn’t perfect, but it was home…
Zooming Out
In the grand scheme of things, I’m happy to be where I’m at. If there’s anything I learned from the lyrics of J. Cole, Nas, Joey Bada$$, Kendrick Lamar, Amine, and Yasiin Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def), I just gotta persevere and thug it out. My colleagues at my new job are cool, my pets are being taken care of, there’s food on the table, there’s a roof on top of my head, my girl’s going to college, and my favorite artists are still putting pen to paper. Everyday I’m striving to get better.
This blog update has been a lot more personal and insightful compared to other ones so I hope y’all don’t mind reading my inner thoughts. I haven’t had much time to pick up the camera due to a shift in my priorities. However, when I do have time to shoot, I’ll be shooting in B&W, or black and white. Everything else that’s not related to anything automotive will be in B&W for the rest of the year. It’s a small experiment and commitment I’m making to develop my skills as a photographer.
I’m hoping to attend more car events to meet fellow enthusiasts. With the winter in Colorado being close to winters in The Bay, I won’t be surprised to see more cool cars at the local car events. It has snowed maybe 2-3 times this season. Last weekend, there was a handful of weekend cruisers taking advantage of the sunny weather. This morning, I saw someone take pictures of their Porsche Boxster with the roof on AND off!
Thanks for tuning into this BLOG UPDATE! I hope y’all are taking care of yourselves, getting your tax refunds, and reaching out to your loved ones! Stay tuned for a new post! It’ll be a short one as I get back into shooting! JVZY out!
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