The community of North Carolina is giving J. Cole his flowers while he can smell them. On Saturday (September 26), graffiti artist JEKS took to social media to share finished photos of a mural he painted of the Dreamville rapper.
Located in Durham, 80 miles north of Cole’s Fayetteville home, JEKS’ art takes a portrait taken by photographer Jonathan Mannion and transforms it into a giant tribute.
“Another collaboration with legendary photographer @jonathanmannion of NC hiphop legend @realcoleworld for @uhillwalls in Durham NC,” JEKS wrote. “It was such an awesome few days surrounded by 40+ other artists killing it. Huge thanks to @abvagency and Xavier for running a tight ship.”
Even more fitting is the fact JEKS is also from North Carolina.
JEKS started out spray painting tags as a kid and has painted various Hip Hop artists throughout his career.
“I was introduced to graffiti in my early teens through a friend in Boy Scouts actually haha,” he told Spray Planet. “I started with skateboarding and putting up super shitty tags around Winston-Salem. As I got more educated and into the culture thanks to meeting some established writers like EVADE, SCAR, and JAT to name a few influential OGs, I started piecing and became more active and consistently painting freights and walls.”
His previous work includes Method Man, Outkast, The Notorious B.I.G. and others.
Over the weekend, an Instagram user stopped by the mural of Cole and showed off more art on display at the UHill Walls.
“It’s like an outdoor art experience,” they wrote. “It’s over 40,000 square feet full of murals paying tribute to many men and women who have influenced culture all from NC. SUPER dope!”
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North Carolina Hip Hop trio Little Brother a.k.a. Phonte, Rapper Big Pooh and 9th Wonder are also featured in a painting.
Murals are a common form of tribute in Hip Hop, especially for rappers who have passed away. Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD are a few examples of street art being displayed across their hometowns in recent years.
DOPE!
Lol at cole being a legend. That word get thrown around way to much.
Need to see the finished version of that Little Brother mural! Looking dope
Although J. Cole is a nice lyricist, I think we’d be lowering the bar by giving him the ‘legend’ status right now. I believe he’s well on his way to being called a legend one day, not just yet.
Look who’s replaced MLK. Don’t ever wonder why black America is in the dumps, look what they have chosen as the mentors and “leaders” of their culture. Nipsey should NEVER be idiolized. He was a poverty pimp gang member who died on the streets. Honoring Crips? Honoring rioters, criminals, cop killers, arsonists too? Black America, wake up, you’re being played.
white people fuck their dogs
Cole still doesn’t have a classic album. Change my mind
ur an asshole, change my mind
JCole is no legend! Dude music is trash!!! These articles and young people kill me with this shit! I don’t remember not one line of JCole…
Who d fuck is dis
What classic album does JCole have? Please tell me people!!! Anybody a legend in today’s so call hip hop! JCole music is garbage!!!
Who isn’t a “LEgEnDddD!!!!” in today’s hip hop now what a fucking joke. The most over used term along with classic which Cole has none of. No
Son stop beating your meat to Metacritic. You’re too young to be such a cynic. One day you’ll understand.
Lol mofos are genuine haters. J Cole is a legend. Y’all lame as hell, “where are his classic albums”…like that’s a qualifier. He’s doing things for people in his community, meanwhile y’all beat y’all meat like it owes y’all money to Metacritic
Anything where Little Brother is getting love I’m gonna support. I saw them open for Heiro like 15+ years ago and been a die hard fan ever since. If you reading this and focus on the J Cole stuff you missed the point. Check Little Brother. Immediately.
The haters in these comments are crazy dumb. Don’t know shit from sugar, who do y’all listen to and consider legends? I would love to see this bullshit y’all wanna pull up
All Coles albums when platinum that’s some legendary shit in my book.
dylon needs one next because he spits hot ?fire… put it directly on the white house