J. Cole is regarded as one of the most socially conscious rappers of today and is known for making songs with powerful messages aimed towards racism, discrimination, and society. He is also known for being one of the few rappers who are willing to speak openly about social injustices that take place in America and around the world. He usually uses his music videos to express his views and beliefs on certain social issues and they are received with critical acclaim.
He does not disappoint with the release of the music video for his 2014 single "G.O.M.D." The music video is set on a plantation in the Deep South during the 1800s. It features J. Cole portraying a house slave with other black actors as slaves preparing dinner for their white slave owners and guests.
At the dinner, J. Cole and some of the female slaves are standing around watching the slave owners eat and dance. As the owners are dancing, one of them drops their keys to the gun closet. J. Cole sees this and proceeds to re-fill one of the guests' drink and slides the keys under his foot. The daughter of the slave owner notices but she turns a blind eye. J. Cole proceeds to recruit a few of the male house slaves and they unlock the gun closet and take all the guns out. The daughter follows them to the gun closet and provides a distraction for the slaves as one of the slave owners is walking towards their direction. They continue outside to give the guns to the field slaves and plan a revolt. The field slaves ambush the slave owners and hold them hostage at gunpoint. The other slaves then begin to destroy the plantation house and the video cuts to the female slaves performing an African tribal dance.
J. Cole grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina and was never directly involved in gangs or drug-dealing, but had a couple friends who did. He was born to a white mother and a black father. His father was not very active in his childhood. He grew up very poor and decided to start rapping in high school. He graduated from St. John's University, in New York City, magna cum laude with a 3.8 GPA in 2007.
The music video for "G.O.M.D." is filled with many symbols, but I will focus on just a few of them. The division of dark-skinned and light-skinned slaves still has a lasting effect on black people today. During slavery, darker-skinned slaves were assigned to work outside in the field (field slaves) and the lighter-skinned slaves were allowed to live and work in the house (house slaves).
This division can still be seen today among black people. Many, not all, black people look down on light-skinned black individuals as inferior or "diluted". They believe light-skinned blacks have it easier in America than their dark-skinned counterparts. As evident in the video, there was some tension between the house slaves and the field slaves. This tension was resolved when J. Cole provided the guns to the field slaves for their revolt.
Another significant symbol was the slave owner's daughter and J. Cole's silent relationship. The daughter witnessed J. Cole slide the keys under his feet, but her decision to turn a blind eye served as a subtle pledge of allegiance to J. Cole and the slaves. She even distracted another slave owner by dancing with him as he was approaching J. Cole and some slaves as they were taking the guns out the gun closet. J. Cole and the daughter never spoke to each other, but they did not have to. This allegiance represents the white people who helped some of the slaves gain their freedom during slavery.
The slaves destroying the plantation represents the frustration and anger that black people have been feeling since arriving in America on slave ships. That anger and frustration has been building up for centuries and is still building up. The video ends with the female slaves enacting an African tribal dance. This dance can be seen as black people identifying or paying respect to their African heritage and history. It can also be seen as a message to black people to never forget their roots.
J. Cole attempts to close the division between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks and to help non-black people see and feel from a black perspective on a controversial topic to some. J. Cole is speaking as a bi-racial black man whose perspective is sometimes undermined or ignored and attempting to end discrimination in the black community between dark-skinned and light-skinned black people.
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