J. Cole caught backlash and was called misogynistic after admitting he called out Noname on his new song "Snow on tha Bluff."
J. Cole raps on the song, "My IQ is average, there's a young lady out there, she way smarter than me/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 niggas, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve/She mad at the celebrities, lowkey I be thinkin' she talkin' 'bout me/Now I ain't no dummy to think I'm above criticism/So when I see something that's valid, I listen/But sh*t, it's something about the queen tone that's botherin' me."
Many people speculated that the song was about Noname, who criticized rappers for not getting out with protesters, writing on Twitter, "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. n***as whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found."
J. Cole then confirmed that he was speaking about Noname on Wednesday (June 17), writing, "Morning. I stand behind every word of the song that dropped last night.Right or wrong I can’t say, but I can say it was honest.
"Some assume to know who the song is about. That’s fine with me, it’s not my job to tell anybody what to think or feel about the work. I accept all conversation and criticisms. But let me use this moment to say this.
"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 n***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. We may not agree with each other but we gotta be gentle with each other."
