The time has come to talk about something from J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive. There are only one or two youngish artists that are simultaneously more lauded and vilified than young J. Cole within the Hip Hop realm. Drake, maybe, but his lane is all wrapped up in a christmas bow and (say what you will) but he did it of his own prodigious talent. Big K.R.I.T., perhaps, but Cadillactica may have ushered him out of the “maybe” category and into the “definitely” one. As for Kendrick Lamar, we are simply waiting to see if he can deliver on another body of work as vibrant and powerful as GKMC.
But J. Cole is different. As we previously discussed in our “Stray Shots” column, we have expectations for Cole that we think are justified and important. And while an artist is more than free to do what he or she wishes, as he or she wishes, there are opinions of which we hold dear that filter in after a few bodies of work. Did J. Cole, then, make a transcendent album? We’ll let you decide. What’s important now is that young Simba has taken shots at what he seems to see as a whitewashing of the genre on 2014 Forest Hill Drive’s number six offering “Fire Squad.” Aptly titled. And, of course, after a good listen to that song we had to weigh in. This time, you’ll find our Editor-in-Chief Justin Hunte, freelance writer Ural Garrett, and myself, Features Editor Andre Grant taking a crack at the controversial track.
So, Is It Any Good?
Ural: “We all kings, kings of ourselves first and foremost.” See what Jermaine did? This spoken outro comes after the Fayetteville native calls himself the “new Ice Cube, meets the new Ice-T meets 2 Live Crew, meets the new Spike Lee, meets 02 Wayne” or excellence of black art at all levels. Yes, there was a time where Amerikkka’s Most Wanted lived in perfect harmony with Nasty As I Wanna Be. Not because one was better than the other, but because both represented unique perspectives on black life through Hip-Hop. That’s something that J Cole’s magna cum laude self understands fully on “Fire Squad.”
Kendrick Lamar obviously sent a shockwave last year with “Control.” Once the dust settled however, Macklemore swept the Grammy’s and Forbes is calling Iggy Azealia the Queen of Hip-Hop; all in a year’s span. Even R&B wasn’t safe if Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke had anything to do with it. Maybe the problem was that everyone from purest and casual listeners to media caused so much cultural separation, things became easier for those with privilege as Cole rhymes on Vinylz production. For someone who counts hyper-capitalist Jay Z as a mentor, Cole feels a lot more philosophically adept to articulate the issue. And all this two weeks after Ferguson’s failure to indict Darren Wilson and on the day New York police murdered a man on camera for the world to see without repercussion.
Andre: Early on in “Fire Squad,” produced by Washington Heights native Vinylz, we find J. Cole waxing poetic about being the man and making half jokes like, “You might be like the new Ice Cube / Meets the new Ice T / Meets 2 Live Crew / Meets the new Spike Lee / Meets Bruce like Wayne / Meets Bruce like Lee / Meets ‘02 Lil Wayne in a new white tee / Meets KD, ain’t no nigga that can shoot like me.” But it’s his fourth verse that proves he may not just be putting words together to make you go “ahh!” That verse finds him going at the multi-pronged head of what some have seen as a co-opting of Hip Hop music and culture by white artists. Here’s what he said: “History repeats itself and that’s just how it goes / Same reason these rappers always bite each other’s flows / Same thing that my nigga Elvis did with Rock-n-Roll / Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and then Macklemore / While silly niggas wonder who gon’ snatch the crown / Look around, my nigga, white people have snatched the sound / This year I’ll probably go to the awards dappered down / Watch Iggy win a Grammy as I try to crack a smile / I’m just playin’, but all good jokes contain true shit / The same rope you climb up on, they hang you with.”
Strangely, this is when J. Cole is at his best. Pointing out inequities in culture is one of his greatest talents. There’s no doubt that Hip Hop has always been an outsider culture. At one point it was even counter culture, but as the two circles of Hip Hop and Pop Culture begin to get closer together, you find that the overlap creates situations where the wider culture no longer has to necessarily seek black faces to identify with. It means they don’t have to cross that socio-cultural-ideological divide — the entry point to Hip Hop, originally, to begin with — to gain entry to the kingdom. It is no wonder then, that in 2013 there were no black artists with a number one single. And it is no wonder, then, that in 2014 there were no black artists to go platinum. So is J. Cole correct? It’s hard to say. Interestingly enough he mentioned Elvis, which may be the most salient pick. With the veil of time lifted we can see what happened there clear as day: Elvis made Chuck Berry obsolete to white, majority audiences. Is the same thing happening in Hip Hop? At least Cole raises the question. Like “Control” before it, which used the spectre of competition to spur other artists to speak on an uncomfortable truth (perhaps not a fact, but a kind of truth), maybe “Fire Squad” will do the same. After the Eric Garner non-indictment, and the outrage pouring on to social media from the Hip Hop community, there’s no doubt we have much to discuss.
Justin: Let’s play a game. The game is called Which Emcees From The 2000s Would Have Been Revered In The Golden Era 1990s?
Now let’s say that for an artist to be considered he or she must have released their first widely known project post-2004, which exclude acts like Kanye West and Pusha-T, for example (looking back 10 years is just cleaner).
Here’s the first ballot:
I’ll go first. Part of what made the Golden Era so much fun was that lyrical skill was paramount and mimicking anyone else was strictly prohibited. Everything from the metaphors to the wardrobes oozed freshness. Because of that, it’s difficult to see Action reach mass appeal then because he sounds too much like Ghostface Killah too often. That’s not saying that he’s not dope. That’s saying that “dope” was different in the 90s. It’s easier to see Lupe Fiasco reach reverence, on the other hand, because there are few things Lu can’t do lyrically or stylistically. The first verse on “Daydreamin’” alone—where he imagines a project building turning into a robot with such detail it might as well be in IMAX—stands strong next to some of the 1990s most celebrated stanzas.
Cole is in an interesting space right now. On one hand, Cole is arguably the Hip Hop People’s Champ. They got his back like the Verizon man, and all that. At the same time, since he’s yet to craft a universally acclaimed body of work a cloud of underachievement seems to hover over his career. His albums feel boring. So it’s interesting to hear him open “Fire Squad” with “Ain’t no way around it no more, I am the greatest / A lot of niggas sat on the throne / I am the latest / I am the bravest / Go toe-to-toe with the giants.” Cole unloads throughout, kicking a controlled aggression more matured than we’ve yet heard from him, targeting biting emcees and the White Rapper Takeover seamlessly and simultaneously. And just when you think the track is little more than a typical ball-tickling cypher rhyme, the perspective flips 180 degrees once the spoken word verse kicks in closing out the song. “Fire Squad” is cocky and clever, boasting the newest dimension to his songwriting. It’s dope enough that if someone came up to me and said that J. Cole would absolutely be revered if he had came out during the Golden Era, I would immediately disagree… but I’d understand.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Justin “The Company Man” Hunte is the Editor-in-Chief of HipHopDX. He was the host of The Company Man Show on PNCRadio.fm and has covered music, politics, and culture for numerous publications. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Follow him on Twitter@TheCompanyMan.
Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based writer and photographer. For the past several years, he’s written for numerous publications ranging from HipHopDX to SoulTrain. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
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did you guys love this song? i can’t really tell
All I gotta say is WOW man where has this j.cole been since Friday night lights he has stepped it up y’all this is what we were talkin bout with cole all this time now more aggressive, more swag, and competitive yep cole just shitted on the sideline story and born sinner in one track so don’t bash him y’all for mentioning Eminem, Mackelmore, Justin Timberlake, and Iggy what he said wasn’t a suicidal career ending move at all man he spoke the truth about white people snatching the sound in the music world for example y’all watched the grammies last year who won that award for best rap album of the year it shoulda been Kendrick Lamar right but it wasn’t he got robbed by Mackelmore when everybody knows Kendrick was the one that should have one it hands down and another example is the legendary lyricist Nas he never won a Grammy for any of his music and he should have he was on another level MAN so I applaud J.cole for having the balls to step his game up and tell the truth about race in music and how it seems like blacks are being overlooked in music and whites are taking the cake and technically J.cole didn’t really diss Eminem he was just stating the facts about the rap game and how are favorite rappers do bite eachothers flows and have been for decades now u don’t believe me go back and listen to some of the top artist u love and listen to the lyrics u will find that someone stole a page out of biggie and tupacs book and its happening still today J.cole is right y’all about it all so done catch touchy feelings over Eminems name being call out as well as the others J.cole made a statement on Fire Squad that was needed and no one really has brought it to the forefront til now J.cole has set the bar and this album will be the defining moment in his career LOL Cole’s a force to be reckoned with and he just proved that leak or not im buying this album next week y’all should to buy a bunch of them cole is on a new level now u can tell hands down album of 2014 cop it when it drops ITS FIRE!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for checking the piece, Hip Hop iz Back. We appreciate it.
Good Article First off, second great comment. As I read I read a few that stated the same thing but this caught my ear. Cole never took shot at Em or anybody except maybe Iggy. He shed light on an spoken subject. He told the Rap community who is holding it down as of right now since the public feels awards make a person which in todays culture it doesn’t but it does to the media. He said Em has taken over true statement, Iggy will win, true statement, Elvis, Macklemore, and Justin have taken our sound true statement. Its fact not shots, we all know great lyricist don’t get the correct light shinned on them, don’t take it to heart. This was a good body of work and most people will just get a bootleg copy and wonder why we cant sell. Contribute to the artist and then say well he tried. I pleased with my copy, If we expect better we have to do better Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, it don’t matter music is music, theft is theft, but creativity cant be out done, only perfected. Get your bars up, get better beats, stop making pop corn raps, and get in the booth, Kendrick I’m waiting, were waiting, quality albums lets go.
Whites will take over hip hop eventually. Blacks will create a new style of music. Wash, rinse, repeat.
J Cole is a pussy. Fuck him. Eminem will dominate him. The end.
Eminem is good but not the best. For you to insult the guy is ridiculous. They hail all white artists as the greatest thing to happen to music and it is false and thats the truth. Stealing the sound and calling it theirs hence (Elvis the King of Rock and Roll) not even close. Hey you entitled to your opinion but you are wrong to me.
I was expecting a bit more depth to this article. Why not delve into cultural appropriation and assimilation? Isn’t that the reason why many of us have reacted to Fire Squad? Cole makes an excellent point. The assimilation of black culture is at an all time high.
So let me get this straight.
Blacks want equal rights, and to be treated equally.
As soon as someone from another race does their culture as well or better than a black, it’s wrong?
Then fuck it, stay making up 40% of jail and 17% of the population.
Oh is that too real?
Then shut your dumbass up about “deep”.
You’re a faggot.
out of context, people are complaining about a new trend, hip hop was created from the unheard at the bottom of society who slaved to produced a well crafted art form of social expression and life in general so as soon as one white boy can rap the genre’s on its death bed, GTFOH!!!
J. Cole was on point. Its very true it seems like they want to hail white artists to be the best that ever did i. Eminem is great but to say he is the greatest to ever rap is absolutely false. Their are most white people in America so of course he would be the top selling artist ( not a surprise ). To be honest his catalog is about dissing people and hating his mom ( And thats what you call the greatest ) He is talented but highly over rated. Now lets get to IGGY, you mean to tell out everybody who dropped albums, she was the best ( thats hogwash ) thats what media wants you to believe ( They are pushing her forward she is not good) She is doing her best black gril impersonation ( like Fergie, Arianna Grande ) J. Cole was on point. Now watch how many white people say I am racist for my statement t ( reverse racism )
Cole was the first nigga saying he was inspired by Em now he’s sparking controversy to sell albums. Ok how is Em so wack white artist like Iggy and Cocklemore stealing the sound. He was the first white artist since the beasties to be critically and financially successful and he is hands down whether white black or purple one of the greatest to get in the booth. Charlamagne was right. He will never get his respect because all you people see is color.
Funny that the ones dissing white people in rap are light skinned niggeerrs. J Cole, Lord Jamar….This faggot needs to know his place. Dissing Eminem and fuckin ELvis? Bitch please.
He didnt diss them. He saying how white rappers take black music and overshadows the people that created. Thats not a diss, its called “the truth”. You might not have heard of that word cuz ur too fuckin stupid to face the facts so u rely on primitive racism.
I hear this as a statement about the audience and state of rap. An indictment of the current rap/ pop audience, not necessarily the performer. Like Aaron Rodgers said “Relax.” Dope song.
GAME AND JEEZY ARE THE ONLY 2 Niggaz IN THE 2000’s that could have held their own with the likes of Pac and Biggie and them in the 90s hate it or love it its the truth Game and Jezzy are real niggaz and they drop classics and quality music consistently!!!!!
GAME AND JEEZY ARE THE ONLY 2 Niggaz IN THE 2000’s that could have held their own with the likes of Pac and Biggie and them in the 90s hate it or love it its the truth Game and Jeezy are real niggaz and they drop classics and quality music consistently!!!!!
Eminem will slay j coles ass but i feel what cole is saying that iggy bitch is a new level of low in hiphop t.i. get ya bread but that bitch has no place in hiphop let alone be winning awards that way doper artist should be getting that bitch is str8 garbage
I think Jeezy would’ve had a tremendously difficult time in 1990s if anything because when he first dropped he was only kicking energy and ad-libs just like Master P… and Master P had a hard time in the 1990s. Game might’ve had a chance.
Thank you for the reply, really.
I agree with you there the 101 was really energy and adlibs. jeezy didnt get more intricate with the trap lyrics until later on point with that comment!
People need to realize that when Eminem is at his best is when he is rapping out of anger. What was the last song that was good from Eminem post 2009? That would be the warning. Why? because he was rapping out of anger. If What jcole said is enough to piss off Eminem. He better watch out. The problem is, it takes a lot to piss off eminem now adays, cause he is more mature.
“Rap God” is pretty incredible. Great point about Em rapping out of Anger. I like Chris Rock’s reasoning against Em being the greatest as well. In an interview with the Morning Show he said Em is technically great, sure, but he never made music that made people dance. that’s a serious hole in anyone’s catalog.
Thanks for checking the piece, Andrew. We appreciate it.
2009? I can’t name 5 past 2003.
Eminem knows he got the Elvis syndrome in Hip Hop hes not confused by it he understands it.as does Macklemore….Iggy i doubt because she don’t even use her real voice to rap…that there speaks chapters
Eminem – G.O.A.T. he touches down on the white rapper thing.. but Em is another level than Iggy and Macklemore….Em was making songs with Jay Z , Dr Dre, and Jadakiss long ago… Jcole dumb for mentioning him
The irony in all this is that he’s half white.
Do you mean Incongruous or Ironic, cuz i dont see the irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. i will agree Incongruous: Inconsisten, Out of place, inappropriate, unbecoming. I’ll give ya that.
There is no such thing as half white. You’re still a nigga to the world
Hi class!Todays lesson is about words and what they mean so please take up your dictionaries.And to teach you guys theres no better man than my man Mr Khordkutta.He have travelled the world and compared all other nations dictionaries to enlighten himself on this mouthwatering subject.Now i want you to behave and maybe you`ll teach something new,just try not to fall asleep.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
@ How is that Ironic
Mariah Carey is 1/2 white. Most people don’t even know she’s 1/2 black.
A lot of people don’t realize Rashida Jones is the daughter of Quincy.
Nicole Ritchie looks like she’s the product of two pasty Germans, yet she’s half black.
@khordkutta
Since you wanna give a lesson in English, I would like to state that I stick to my original post. The reason this is ironic is because he’s talking shit about white people stealing flows, yet his ass is half white. He says it in one of his songs from the last album as well “half cracka but a nigga too.” Don’t know what you find so hard to understand.
@JJ that doesn’t really matter though because even if you’re biracial people will only identify you as the color of your skin. So if you’re half black half asian but you look more asian people are going to say your asian. Just like the President he’s half white half black but people just say he’s black. This how he put in an “I identify more with what I look like, because that’s how I got treated. … But when you get pulled over by the police, I can’t pull out my half-White card. Or if I just meet you on the street you’re not gonna be like, “This guy seems half-White.””
Review Column:That was terrible,i mean just awful!! Meets Bruce like Wayne / Meets Bruce like Lee / Meets ‘02 Lil Wayne in a new white tee / Meets KD, ain’t no nigga that can shoot like me.” I mean WHAAAT THE FUCK IS THAT FOR LYRICS?!?Just trying to take the kendrick route and drop names to overshadow the raps,only Kendrick atleast did it way better! WHERES THE X BUTTON?!?
lmfao wut r u talking about. Kdot dropped names to tell them to step their game up. J cole just named people who he compared to himself. this is two totally different subjects. so from now on, if any rapper says someone elses name on a track, no matter what the subject is, that means he’s copying kendrick? nigga get the fuck outta here lol
Names or no names,that was terrible,i mean just awful!Lyrics speak for themselves!!You can try to subject it all day long,but that was terrible,i mean just awful!!NEEEEXT!!YOU JUST GOT X`D!!!!!
Child, it ain’t just about lyrics, it’s about PRESENTATION.
When you READ the verse, it pales in comparison to HEARING Cole setup the verse and methodically flesh it out for the remainder of the track. Being able to seamlessly switch between inane braggadocio to conscious bravado takes a kind of skill (and self-awareness) that most hip-hop artists can only DREAM of.
If your petty, infantile mind can’t comprehend that (showcased by your weak comparison to Kendrick), then you are worthy of a “Fire Squad.”
PEACE—Rest in it.
Justin – you don’t think Kendrick would have made it in the Golden Era?
I definitely think Kendrick would’ve been revered in the Golden Era. He cares waaaay too much about lyricism and originality. Plus he has like 8 different ways he can approach any track. Great to hear from you, R.Pgh.
Eminem still makes great music. And those whpo disagree or argue… just aren’t listening… Eminem is arguably one of the greatest on the mic and to make songs. You dont have to dance to the shit for a song or album to be great!! Thats the double sided edge on this blade. In one breathe comments like that are made…. then the next, the lack of great music, lyrics, depth, quality, and content is due to everyone trying to make a club or dance song instead of making great music with substance….
Its not the point if they’re good or not. Its the point that they’re bigger because they’re white. A white parent is more likely to buy their kid a mac miller album before a j Cole or a Eminem album before a Nas just based on image not content.
Isn’t Cole’s Mom White – the Blackest wanna be’s have White Parents!
His words in an interview “But when you get pulled over by the police, I can’t pull out my half-White card. Or if I just meet you on the street you’re not gonna be like, “This guy seems half-White.”
MC EIHT TAKE 2 WITH ME = CLASSIC SONG ABOUT THE NWW YORK POLICE OFF THE ALBUM WE COME STRAPPED , COMPTONS MOST WANTED – ONE TIME GAFFLED EM UP = CLASSIC SONG OFF THE ALBUM IT’S A COMPTON THANG – FULL ALBUM ON YOUTUBE GEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH WAKE YO PUNK AZZ UP MC EIHT IS IN THE MUTHAFUCKING HOUSE BITCH