J. Cole surprised fans by dropping a new song titled “Snow on Tha Bluff” late Tuesday night (June 16).
On the Wu10-produced track, which marks his first solo single of 2020, Cole tackles police brutality, racism, and social injustice. However, the track largely centers on questions about Cole's activism amidst the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
Cole opens the song by addressing what fans speculated was Noname's viral Twitter thread, where she called out rappers for not publicly speaking out amidst the current nationwide awakening to police brutality and racial injustice in this country.
"I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times and I started to read/She mad at these crackers, she mad at these capitalists, mad at these murder police/ She mad at my ni**as, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve/She mad at the celebrities, low key I be thinkin' she talking bout me," he rapped on the track.
Back in May, Noname called out "y’all favorite top selling rappers" for remaining silent amidst the nationwide protests against systemic racism and police violence. "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," she wrote at the time. "n*ggas whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found."
While Noname didn't refer to anyone by name, many speculated that she was referring to Cole and Kendrick Lamar, who had not made public statements about the Black Lives Matter movement, but were later spotted at protests.
Given the large backing of Noname's initial tweets, many on Twitter weren't exactly pleased with the fact that Cole dedicated an entire song to addressing Noname rather than solely focusing on the BLM movement.
"Out of all the things Cole could’ve addressed he addressed a Noname tweet?" a fan wrote on Twitter. Another added, "J.Cole sat down with Lil Pump and had a civil conversation with him for an hour after he called him a b*tch on the internet for 2 years yet Noname gets an entire song dedicated to her for voicing her opinions on her own damn twitter account. Do y’all not see the problem?"
Cole appeared to confirm that his bars were in reference to Noname's tweets on Wednesday (June 17), taking to Twitter to address the backlash regarding what some deemed were "misogynistic" lyrics.
"Morning. I stand behind every word of the song that dropped last night," he wrote in part before asking his followers to support Noname. "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 ni**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," Cole added.
He concluded his statement writing, "We may not agree with each other but we gotta be gentle with each other. ✌🏿."
It’s unclear if “Snow on Tha Bluff” will appear on Cole's upcoming album, The Fall Off, which is the follow-up to his 2018 project KOD.
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