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After saving Lil Pump, J. Cole is the mentor that this generation of hip-hop needs

hip hop May 29, 2018
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‘Fuck J. Cole?’

The KOD rapper was truly confused when he caught wind of this phrase. Cole was not alone in his thoughts. True hip-hop heads couldn’t understand why anyone would come incorrectly at a rap artist whose body of works could stand alone as a volume from a hip-hop encyclopedia.

We know that Cole’s track “1985” trickled some ripples in the rap pond and was a rude awakening for the new age ‘LIL’ fish who spoke down on the Dreamville founder’s name. C’mon, it was a valid response to the “Fuck J. Cole” troll craze that was sweeping the internet.

It was a viral energy. Like, somehow a bunch of kids rolling loud at Rolling Loud stomping their dirty white Chuck T’s into the earth; the same kids that rattle their brains to pudding from violently headbanging to Lil’ Pump’s “ESKETIT” finally had a say in the rap game.

Still, troll or not and beef to the side J. Cole managed to set up a chill sesh with the new age rapper’s generational representative, Lil Pump aka Jetski.

Beyond a variety of topics, the odd pair discussed the basics, like how they came up in the rap game and what inspired them.

The dreadlocked rappers (one’s dreaded mane longer than the other’s) reminisced on how the meeting at Cole’s The Sheltuh studio in North Carolina came about. Cole thought the initial reach out from Pump’s camp was a troll. Cole revealed,

“We ended up speaking on the phone… Somebody called my phone and you were there with them. I ain’t gonna lie, I thought you were trying to set me up or some shit. I was like, ‘Yo, he’s 17 and a massive troll.’ I think you wanted to FaceTime right?… Cause my album had just dropped like a week before that, so I thought if I FaceTimed you, I thought you’d just screenshot that shit and go right to Twitter and keep running with it more.”

Honestly Cole, at that time, it probably was a troll and if it was any of your fans in the same situation they probably would’ve made the same choice. Cole fans are wise AF! Still, with the fear of Pump trolling him, Cole made sure he made the hour interview happen with the “Gucci Gang” rapper.

J. Cole could be the mentor these young rappers need. Instead of clapping back on social media and trolling back Cole took beef to another level. He sat down with the opposition and focused on a brotherhood with the so-called “enemy.”

In a way, Cole has accepted the new with loving arms as all OGs should. He embraced the controversy and tried to understand this new wave of artistry. One that doesn’t focus on lyrical skill but one that aims to gain a fanbase through social attention. Cole spoke about how he felt. He said,

“It was like two years ago, I saw one of the ‘Freshman Freestyles.’ And I was like sad. Like, I was like ‘Damn, this shit really over.’ I know now that I was wrong. All I was doing was being afraid that the thing that I fell in love with was no longer relevant or respected. At that moment, it brought fear… It ain’t nothing like what I grew up on, and even what I make, what I prefer. But it’s like… What I’ma do be scared of this? Deny this? Deny you expressing yourself, however, the fuck you want to do that? …I’m resisting this shit when it’s really like, I should be accepting this shit. And appreciating that it’s different and that something new is happening…”

At the 33-minute mark, Cole even went as far to ask Pump about the “Fuck J. Cole” movement that Pump had supported back in 2017. Sidenote, it’s ten times funnier in slo-mo. Pump replied while fiddling with his bottle,

“So basically…I don’t know. I was sitting in like a room one day and I saw in my comments like, ‘Fuck J. Cole. Fuck J. Cole,’…and that was it… But now, I kind of get it because we make different types of music. So people like…They’ll feel some type of way like ‘Fuck this. Fuck that.’ I started doing it and people were just like, ‘Fuck it.’”

Honestly, more young rappers will take a page out of Cole and Pump’s book. Maybe we can get a sitdown between Drake and XXXTentacion so someone can explain whatever happened there. A sit down between The Basedgod, A-Boogie, and PnB Rock would be even hotter.

Hopefully, Cole continues to be the light at the end of the tunnel for these young bucks. God knows they need they need the guidance.

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