Super successful and undeniably enigmatic rapper J. Cole recently gave Billboard a rare sit down interview this week where he shared some thoughts about a number of topics which further reveal his mindset about politics, the music industry, and the current rise of celebrity worship.
In no uncertain terms, Cole makes it known from jump that he doesn’t like the trappings of fame and he is fully aware that critics think that he’s prone to “finger wagging” his peers in hip-hop. Doing so has positioned him as a “moral authority” to a lot of people; namely his loyal fanbase.
These days, the 33-year-old wants us to know there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.
Here are five tidbits about J.Cole that completely blew our minds.
He likes to help out the community anonymously
The day that Billboard writer Dee Lockett was shadowing the rapper, it was 107-degrees in Dallas. Even though he was due onstage in a few hours, he made everyone in his camp make a detour to a local charity event.
Residents of Oak Cliff, a neighborhood where the crime rate is twice that of the national average, had been incessantly tweeting Cole, begging him to attend their drive for school supplies, called the “Back to School Festival.” Cole, with no advance notice or publicity, showed up with a U-Haul stocked with $20,000 worth of goods.He also chose not to formally announce his donation, but instead take pictures with fans including the occasional hugs and autograph.
“He got a show tonight, he didn’t have to come to this,” said one shocked parent.
And even after he was whisked back into his SUV, Cole rolled down his tinted window and offered a young woman who dreams of starting a charter school, the email address of someone at his Dreamville label who might be able to help her.
That quick afternoon detour pretty much sums up J. Cole’s disdain for milking his celebrity juxtaposed against his deep understanding of the power it can provide to help those less fortunate.
He’s notoriously private but NOT shy
People often mistakenly think being private is synonymous with being shy, and that couldn’t be any further from the truth.
In the piece, Locket quickly realizes that the man she is spending the day with is anything but quiet, and watches in bemusement as he passionately claps his hands for emphasis as he, “wrestles with ideas about compassion, cancel culture and his own ambivalent relationship to fame.”
Once he’s let his guard down, Cole waxes poetic about several things he’s working on, like aiding Hurricane Florence victims in Fayetteville, while still attempting to stay out of the spotlight. Having an album that went #1 on the Billboard charts makes that a tricky task to say the least.
“I swear to God, I be thinking about how to get unfamous, but I know it’s impossible,” he laments. Instead, he just makes it his priority to stay purposefully relevant, which feels like a reasonable compromise because, “You can be irrelevant and still be famous.”
“Why have you opened up to more press recently?” Lockett asks.
To which he bluntly responds, “The team thought it would be good. No disrespect to Billboard, but I literally was not in the mood. I was fine.”
XXXTentacion reached out to him just months before his death
When rapper XXXTentacion died, Cole tweeted that he had “a strong desire to be a better person.” He did so based largely on a lengthy conversation the pair had just four months before he was murdered.
“He started off the conversation literally on some, like – he didn’t even say hello. He started off basically saying, “I’m not on your level yet.” He was talking about spiritually and mentally, and that was intense because I was like, “Huh? I’m not on no level.” He was praising me while also saying he was going to achieve whatever it is he felt that I had. I’ve dealt with mentally ill people in my life before, many of them. And right away, I notice that this kid is super passionate and smart, but I could also see that he was so deep in his mind.”
He didn’t vote in the 2016 election
Often cited as a conscious rap artist, it might shock fans to know Cole chose not to vote in what may be considered one of the most important elections in modern day history.
“Hillary Clinton wasn’t somebody that was motivating me to go vote,” he explains. “If it was Bernie Sanders, I would’ve showed up and voted. I would’ve been the first one in line, no bulls–t. No disrespect to Hillary.”
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“Trust me, I hate to be a person who’s even promoting that I didn’t vote,” he continues. “Actually, with Trump in office, I love that America gets to see the truth. If Hillary Clinton was in office, it would be the most f–ing disingenuous s–t because everybody would be thinking that everything’s cool because we got an incredibly qualified female president. Which would’ve been amazing on so many levels. But all the shit we see right now would’ve still existed; it would’ve just been quiet. And I prefer this s–t to be out loud. I prefer an honest America. I prefer the world seeing that, yes, we’re a country that is dumb enough – no disrespect – [that] we got duped into electing Donald Trump.”
He doesn’t consider himself an activist
Even though Cole would have preferred for Bernie Sanders to be the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, he didn’t campaign for him, and doesn’t really consider himself an activist in general.
After being referred to as the “Harry Belefonte of rap,” he dismisses that notion completely saying, “There’s a long history of activism and standing for something, and I haven’t done enough. I’m too selfish for that, and one day, I hope that I’m not. Right now, it’s about me, family and the music or any creative pursuits that I do.”
Well all right now.