For the final month-plus, as the 2 greatest rappers within the sport have gone to the mattresses, embroiled in a beef that’s solely intensified (typically by the day, some days by the hour), social media has been speculating endlessly on one unanswered query: What the hell is J. Cole doing amidst all this? Hip-hop’s greatest superstars are hunkered down in hiding, household vans are being crushed, ugly allegations and accusations tucked in beautiful flows over unbelievable beats are flying left and proper, family members (principally ladies and youngsters) are collateral harm, and there’s a risk precise photographs are being exchanged. It seems just like the again half of The Wire season 3 on the market.
Does that make J. Cole Cutty? Confronted by the prospect of getting to drag an actual set off on his brother, Jermaine as a substitute launched the clip, ejected the spherical within the chamber and threw the burner into the ocean—and was roundly mocked for seemingly ethering himself (or a minimum of his picture because the fearsome rap reaper who nobody needs lyrical smoke with.)
However the additional this entire saga’s strayed away from mere lyrical sparring, the extra J. Cole’s determination has come to be perceived as more and more sound—beginning across the time Drake invoked the robotic essences of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg to goad Kendrick to drop his diss monitor at a faster tempo. Issues have solely gotten extra outlandish from there. And all of the whereas, a recurring gag has been questioning how Cole may be having fun with his free time, because it have been, at any given second. Is the one-time pro-basketball hopeful significantly engaged in spherical 1 of the NBA playoffs? Biking round Manhattan as spring climate lastly blooms? I preserve coming again to this one weird Jack Nicholson line supply because the Joker in Batman that I liked as a child: He’s at dwelling! Washing his tights! (Cole does love him some laundry.)
So think about the web’s collective chuckle when the primary photograph of J. Cole that turns up for the reason that week of his concession speech—courtesy of a fan who posted the picture to her Instagram—is essentially the most J. Cole Shit ever: He is on a seashore, cumbersome music nerd over-ear headphones on, dressed like he simply obtained again from or is about to go hoop, with a laptop computer (?) that he’s figuring out of from an open suitcase (??). It simply doesn’t get extra J. Cole—the rapper who since his third album has come to exude a constant state of banal Zen, one of many solely multi-platinum millionaires you may nearly at all times catch doing “common shit”—than this.
He may be vibing out to some Ari Lennox, he may be listening to the ninth model of his Fall Off album that he’s utterly re-tooled since he bowed out from the smoke. He in all probability had a stunning dialog with that younger woman and engaged her in an extended dialog concerning the deserves of defending peace. He seems joyful, and I’m joyful for him. As Drake glowers in his Toronto property, tossing and turning to the BPM of Mustard beats and Kendrick stays tensed in battle mode— hunkered down in a studio till he’s positive it’s secure to return out—there’s seemingly nobody as free and unburdened as Jermaine Cole. Now, let’s all get again to working “Not Like Us” and “Household Issues” on loop.
