J.Cole gave his first in-depth interview in four years, and he didn’t hold back.
His new album K.O.D. is a certified hit. It is the number one album in the country and became the most streamed album in a day on Apple Music and Spotify. The rapper says he couldn’t even buy the album because it was sold out in stores.
“This is the first time I couldn’t cop like 40 physical copies of my own shit,” he told Vulture.
It was all the validation he needed. To his critics, he says “now it’s even clearer you’re a f*cking idiot.”
The “ATM” rapper also went in on rappers who he feels promote destructive images of black people.
“If you exclude the top three rappers in the game, the most popping rappers all are exaggerated versions of black stereotypes,” he said. “Extremely tatted up. Colorful hair. Flamboyant. Brand names. It’s caricatures, and still the dominant representation of black people, on the most popular entertainment format for black people, period.”
J.Cole has seen his share of rap beefs. Rapper Smokepurpp recently led a “F*ck J.Cole” chant at one of his shows, and Lil Pump has a diss track floating around the web. To Cole, it’s a case of hit dogs hollering.
“It’s really a ‘shoe fits’ situation — several people can wear that shoe,” he said. “Why you yelling at your show? You must feel attacked in some kind of way, must feel offended, and if you feel offended, then that means something rings true, something struck a chord. That’s cool with me. That’s all I ever want to do.”
All this aside, there are few rappers that he is digging like XXXTentacion, Trippie Redd and Lil Baby. Cole said he tries to sample music with an open mind these days.
“I’m now in a place where I can hear people and get excited, like this kid is dope as f*ck,” he said. “I wasn’t there before — everybody was trash.”