J. Cole isn’t here for violence against women, even if it means no longer associating with a hip-hop legend.
The North Carolina native revealed he was hurt by the abuse allegations against his idol Nas in an interview with Billboard.
"Yeah, that hurt. I ain’t going to lie. That hurts,” the rapper said. “It feels weird because I f**k with Nas, but I just have to be honest. I came up seeing too much f**ked-up s**t for that to be acceptable. I don’t care who it is. I don’t f**k with people abusing women, and I don’t f**k with people not taking care of their kids.”
Despite this, Cole took a softer approach with the controversial late XXXtentacion, who was also accused of abusing a former partner. J.Cole said he talked to the Florida rapper before his death, and claims XXXtentacion wanted to do better. The KOD rapper said he'd hoped to be a mentor to the 20-year-old.
“When I found out [about the abuse allegations against him], my first response was, 'Man, I hope maybe one day I’ll get a chance to talk to this kid and figure out if there’s any place that I can help.' Because anybody who would do the s**t that he did … hurt people hurt people,” he recalled.
Cole believes people who abuse others can be rehabilitated, with help, and explained why he views the allegations against Nas and XXXtentacion differently.
“I’ve walked through prisons and talked to these dudes who got life. They took someone’s life at 16- or 17-years old. You haven’t had the chance to process your trauma at that age. I’ma be sympathetic to a kid who has clearly been through so much f**ked-up s**t that he inflicted this on someone else.”
The interviewer brought up cancel culture, the idea of someone being permanently ostracized from society for problematic behavior. Cole admitted he had conflicting feelings about the concept, and tied his thoughts to race.
“That’s tough because we’re talking about black women,” the rapper said. “If it was a white woman involved with these allegations, then sadly — I’m realizing as I’m talking to you — maybe people wouldn’t cancel them just as quick, but labels would be forced to cancel, because white outrage is way more powerful than black outrage, unfortunately. When white people start getting outraged about this type of s**t, then maybe something will happen.”
J.Cole recently announced a new date for his Dreamville Festival after it was postponed due to Hurricane Florence, reports Variety. His manager, Ibrahim Hamad, shared the good news on last Friday.
“We battled with the idea of moving forward with the festival at this time or formally cancelling the event. But after receiving unwavering support from the fans and the community, we are excited to announce Dreamville Festival will now take place on April 6, 2019,” said Hamad.
The event will also benefit victims of the devastating storm.
“We are proud to say that Dreamville this spring will also serve as a benefit to hurricane victims in the Carolinas. We hope that fans in North Carolina and across the US will not only join in celebrating the very first Dreamville Festival, but also the resilience of this amazing community.”
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