Like many of today’s heavyweights, J. Cole is known for rarely doing interviews. The Dreamville CEO recently sat down with Billboard for an extensive one-on-one discussion, catching up with the publication during the Dallas stop of his KOD North American tour. During the conversation, Cole World opens up on wide range of topics including Donal Trump, why he decided not to vote, not seeing himself as a celebrity, and how he keeps up with the important things in popular culture without having a heavy presence on social media.
J. Cole would also touch on media in general, which seems to be dominated by Trump and Kardashian headlines. Cole having a three-hour FaceTime conversation with the late XXXTentation before he passed away,
and the recent abuse allegations against Nas by his former ex-wife Kelis are also topics the MC gives his thoughts on. Read some excerpts and the full interview below.
When XXXTentacion died, you tweeted that he had “a strong desire to be a better person.” Did you know him?
I spoke to him on FaceTime one day in February for, like, three hours. His management reached out to Ib and asked if he could FaceTime me or call me. It was a super-intense conversation. He left a mark on me, just as a person.What did he want to talk about?
Pssht. He started off the conversation literally on some, like — he didn’t even say hello. He started off basically saying, “I’m not on your level yet.” He was talking about spiritually and mentally, and that was intense because I was like, “Huh? I’m not on no level.” He was praising me while also saying he was going to achieve whatever it is he felt that I had. I’ve dealt with mentally ill people in my life before, many of them. And right away, I notice that this kid is super passionate and smart, but I could also see that he was so deep in his mind.When I found out [about the abuse allegations against him], my first response was, “Man, I hope maybe one day I’ll get a chance to talk to this kid and figure out if there’s any place that I can help.” Because anybody who would do the shit that he did… Hurt people hurt people. I’ve walked through prisons and talked to these dudes who got life. They took someone’s life at 16 or 17 years old. You haven’t had the chance to process your trauma at that age. I’ma be sympathetic to a kid who has clearly been through so much fucked-up shit that he inflicted this on someone else.
How did you process the allegations of abuse that Kelis made against your hero Nas, who was an adult during their relationship?
Yeah, that hurt. I ain’t going to lie. That hurts. [Pauses.] It feels weird because I fuck with Nas, but I just have to be honest. I came up seeing too much fucked-up shit for that to be acceptable. I don’t care who it is. I don’t fuck with people abusing women, and I don’t fuck with people not taking care of their kids.
Read the full interview over at Billboard
