North Carolina-native J. Cole (real name Jermaine Cole) caused quite the stir last night (June 16, 2020) when he dropped new single “Snow On Tha Bluff” on his YouTube channel.
In the song he takes a mystery woman for task for using the wrong tone while trying to convey activist messages. Cole spits, “She mad at the celebrities, low key I think she be talkin’ bout me. Now I ain’t no dummy to think I’m above criticism. So when I see something I listen. But shit, it’s something about the queen tone that’s bothering me.”
While he didn’t name any names, most have concluded Cole was responding to Chicago rapper and activist Noname‘s since-deleted tweet on May 29th. Calling out a failure to amplify issues related to protecting black lives from police brutality, she wrote, “poor black folks all over the country are putting their bodies on the line in protest for our collective safety and y’all favorite top-selling rappers not even willing to put a tweet up. n****a’s whole discographies be about black plight and they nowhere to be found.”
Volleying back, Noname (real name Fatimah Warner) referenced Cole’s lyrics with a since-deleted Tweet reading, “QUEEN TONE!!!!!”
Cole responded at 8:00 this morning with a series of seven Tweets reading, “Morning. I stand behind every word of the song that dropped last night. Right or wrong I can’t say, but I can say it was honest. Some assume to know who the song is about. That’s fine with me, it’s not my job to tell anybody what to think or feel about the work. I accept all conversation and criticisms.
“But Let me use this moment to say this Follow @noname . I love and honor her as a leader in these times. She has done and is doing the reading and the listening and the learning on the path that she truly believes is the correct one for our people.
“Meanwhile a n***a like me just be rapping.I haven’t done a lot of reading and I don’t feel well equipped as a leader in these times. But I do a lot of thinking. And I appreciate her and others like her because they challenge my beliefs and I feel that in these times that’s important. We may not agree with each other but we gotta be gentle with each other.”
Check out Cole’s “Snow On The Bluff” below.
