Future Black History Month: J. Cole, Born Winner
Fuse is once again celebrating an extended Black History Month by looking at a variety of rising forces who are creating Future Black History before our eyes. Today we pay tribute to North Carolina's J. Cole, the 32-year-old regarded in many quarters as one of the most consistent, independent and socially conscious rapper/producers of our time.
Cole's fourth album, 4 Your Eyez Only, arrived by surprise alongside a 40-minute documentary in December, exactly two years after the 2014 Forest Hills Drive sneak-attack. Its title track is a perfect reminder of Jermaine's vital outspokenness:
"I dedicate these words to you and all the other children
Affected by the mass incarceration in this nation
That sent your pops to prison when he needed education
Sometimes I think that segregation would've done us better
Although I know that means that I would never
Be brought into this world 'cause my daddy was so thrilled
When he found him a white girl to take back to Jonesboro"
We're still watching for Eyez to become Cole's second straight platinum album with no features; for now, it boasts the title of third-highest album sales week in 2016 following Drake's Views and Beyoncé's Lemonade.
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