J. Cole is one of the rare artists who can appeal to multiple audiences without watering down his sound. His method of doing this is simply to have multiple sounds!
J. Cole’s repertoire includes R’n’B flavours, club bangers, trap songs, and then connoisseur’s hip hop like this…
This is an intelligent stuff, touching on class and race in America and wider politics in a poetic way. At the same time, he breaks it down and speaks in his own voice, rather than an intellectualised one.
Every word is well placed, and the story he tells is a vital one. The title of the song might suggest that this is a stoner song; but this track is stone cold sober…
The beat is chilled out, with a ethereal jazzy vibe, perfected suited for J. Cole’s truth bomb.
The final message is that global change starts with individuals, which for me is quite a controversial point but I think everybody understands the thought behind it!
The song was released in 2017 as a standalone single.