The Symbolism of the J. Cole No Name Controversy
Insight into why this J. Cole No Name Controversy was so divided and what it represents for Black people in America
How It Started: The Timeline
It started with an unprovoked remark by rapper No Name as a commentary on our “favorite rappers” – some inferred that she could be talking about J. Cole – not participating in protests and not sharing their views on social media but talking about Black plight in their raps.
This is the tweet:
A picture of J. Cole surfaced with him at protests the NEXT DAY.
After countless people responded to her tweet with videos and pictures of Cole at this protest, she took her tweet down, which was two days after the original tweet was published.
Follow up tweet:
Cole wrote a song about the situation called “Snow on tha Bluff” a few weeks later. It was interpreted as a diss track to No Name and as “policing her tone.” But, if you read the entirety of the lyrics, these are clearly buzz words. Lyrics found here.
J. Cole responded on Twitter after song was released:
No Name responded on Twitter with “QUEEN TONE!!!!” to address his policing of her tone in the tweet.
No Name then went on to respond with “Song 33” to respond to J. Cole, criticizing him for making a song about her while we’re in this climate – as she writes a song about him. It’s a bit ironic. Lyrics found here.
No Name apologies (via Twitter) for the song and said she hopes she didn’t cause too much distraction.
Initial Thoughts on the original No Name tweet and Cole’s Response
Can we just talk about how this whole tweet is a contradiction? Do you want Black rappers at the protests, or talking on social media? Do you want action or rhetoric? Is social media the “bare minimum” in No Name’s eyes?
From reading the original tweet alone, why did Cole assume this tweet was about him? Well, maybe he didn’t originally, but everyone else seemed to. Under the original No Name tweet, they all flooded it with pictures of Cole at protests. It doesn’t matter her intentions; people thought it was about Cole, so why is it far-fetched that he could infer it was about him too? The narrative she created was much bigger than her intentions.
If you want the real tea, both of them should’ve just kept their mouth shut. No Name had no business coming out of the blue with shade, and Cole could’ve simply let it go and not sent any trace of shade back. After all, she said “rappers” not “a rapper”. But this is where we’re at now.
It seems that No Name really wanted to keep top-selling Black rappers accountable, and in the right setting and wording, it may have been more effective. It was, unfortunately, bad timing and poor phrasing.
Snow on Tha Bluff Movie Reference – The Source of No Name J. Cole disagreement
Cole’s lyrics were taken at face value.
J. Cole’s song is a reference to the movie Snow on Tha Bluff. This movie was a documentary style film that used iconic guerilla marketing techniques to promote the film. They taped part of the scenes on a VHS, put blood and dirt on it, and sent them to politicians and the FBI with no return address. The footage seemed real. When it premiered at a film festival in Atlanta, because of the way it was shot, no one could differentiate between the real and fake, and an entire investigation was made.
Why this is important: I make this reference because this movie illustrated the brilliance of storytelling of life: perception is reality. Because it felt real, people thought it was a documentary and not just a film. We know now that none of the film was actually real, and that’s exactly the reference to why Cole feels “faker than Snow on Tha Bluff.” The perception of J. Cole is a political activist, woke, a conscious rapper, a leader in the Black movement. However, that perception doesn’t align with who J. Cole actually is in totality. He’s also just trying to be better and do better for his life, and cares about his community. He isn’t our woke savior, and he knows that. He’s about action, and isn’t going to tell those who aren’t aware (most likely those from the hood) about the system. Because he’s learning too.
J. Cole said that you’re not going to reach the people that need your knowledge (that you spread via Twitter) because one – if they follow you then they’re most likely already conscious but two consciousness isn’t a product of the hood. People from the hood need her knowledge, those in the foster care system, in prison, in gangs, in shitty public schools need her words. She’s not going to reach these people by spreading rhetoric to the followers she already has on Twitter.
Her tweets are not “accessible” or “readable” to those who need it the most. Cole’s message was concise, clear, and quite frankly, made a lot of sense. I just don’t understand how he got this interpretation from her saying Black rappers aren’t using their platform. He was very presumptuous, which in turn rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It made the situation seem as if he ignored her and then proceeded to say all of this other stuff that doesn’t directly correlate.
Symbolism of the controversy
This was never just about No Name and J. Cole, it’s about what they represent, and how we all divided ourselves in this issue.
Their respective socio-economic backgrounds are relatively different. No Name growing up in a culturally strong Black neighborhood in Bronzeville in Chicago with a stable home life with business owners for parents. She was very sheltered from the streets of the South Side of Chicago, and immersed herself into many artistic pursuits. Meanwhile, Cole grew up in trailer parks in the South then bouncing from place to place later in his childhood until moving to a home at 11, still embedded in an abusive household with unstable parental figures. These contrasting backgrounds will most likely lead to a disparity in access to quality education/Blackness knowledge and thus lead to a slower process of becoming “woke” (if ever at all). J. Cole touched on this a little bit in “Snow on Tha Bluff,” but it got lost with people seeing buzz words directed at No Name.
No Name is very educated and aware of important Black topics. J. Cole is eluding that he became much more aware of how Black people can find their way to true freedom later in his life.
She runs a book club, and claims to be well-informed, but when called out (in albeit more passive aggressive way by Cole) about actually using her knowledge to spread that Black people that actually need it, she made it about her being a Black woman tired of educating Black men – cause they “grown” and can read a book on their own.
People say that No name doesn’t have to educate J. Cole as he is not her responsibility. Then why did she feel the need to be so loud? If he was not your responsibility (or any other rapper), then mind your business. To me, it seems like she masked her own internalized beliefs about her own work in the BLM movement. It was holding these rappers accountable for not “using” their platform? No, that’s projecting. Twitter is faux activism.
She has a book club; he’s at protests. She’s a Twitter personality spreading knowledge through her platform; he’s a rapper personality sharing his experiences and knowledge through music. There was no logical reason why she felt impassioned to say what she said on Twitter and thereafter. After all, they’re both working for their fellow Black communities. Is she feeling some type of way that she’s the one talking a lot on Twitter but not doing a lot in real life.
J. Cole didn’t need to say anything because he and his fans know he’s about action, but he felt the need to make a clear observation to No Name, and it backfired. No Name has the stronger narrative because she controls how people perceive her – even if that’s not who she is.
It worsened when Chance the Rapper – an ally to both – chimed in on the issue. His simp responses on Twitter were very much a form of pandering, or saying what Black women wanted him to say because in their eyes, J. Cole was an outright misogynist. Whether intentional or unintentional, it was pandering because he doesn’t acknowledge that Cole never tore No Name down, and just as well had a point.
How could Cole addressing No Name’s “higher-than-thou” (and it is) attitude translate into him wanting this woman to spoon feed him information. She talks as if when rappers tweet, they care about Black people and that this is the end all be all.
Even if she wasn’t talking about him, her narrative that Black rappers that make a profit are not doing anything for their community is grossly false.
There are more than one ways to skin a cat, and she assumes that her way is better than J. Cole’s or any other rapper. Just because J. Cole isn’t advocating the way she wants him to doesn’t mean he’s completely in the wrong. Secondly, disregarding that he could’ve just not made the song, he had the right to speak up for himself, and express how he felt about what No Name had to say. Who’s to say they were even talking about each other in the first place, and that we all simply made a narrative together based on our own projections?
This turned into a Black man vs Black woman issue. It turned into a Black man appearing as misogynistic and putting too much responsibility on a Black woman educating him. That was not the issue here.
No Name and J. Cole – and all of Black Twitter – made this personal, and it wasn’t. It was never about J. Cole needing – or even wanting – No Name’s input or knowledge. He was speaking for the people that need the information she has to provide on Black liberation and her work for the resistance. He was humbled in saying that he doesn’t have all the answers, and possibly eluding that No Name’s answers will never matter if she can’t reach the people that need them. No Name was holding the wrong people accountable. This is a Black issue, and the fact we cannot see eye to eye on the most trivial inter-race relations.
The two both represent that. No Name represents so many Black people with a plethora of knowledge from their circumstances and the people in their life, and seem to get angry when other Black people just don’t seem to understand. J. Cole represents the Black people from the hood that could care less about rhetoric surrounding capitalism and White supremacy, but it would behoove them to actually understand those concepts. It’s the unfortunate reality that you can’t understand what you don’t know; you can’t make good choices if all your choices are bad. The two speaks for both of these sides.
What people in this controversy fail to understand is that J. Cole and No Name are two sides of the same coin – symbols for the narrative of the Black body. Hood mentality vs woke mentality. More importantly, Both black. Their reactions – and the people that took their sides – showed the internal triggers activated. Black educated folks don’t feel heard or valued in American society, but quite similarly, neither do less educated Black folks in poor, unstable neighborhoods. We should really work to try to understand one another, because that will show you what you cannot see, will never have to see.
It’s a privilege to be woke, and educated and aware of what NOT to do, but it’s also essential that with being educated understanding that you don’t have all of the answers.
Read more here.
Research links:
- https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/11/noname-may-quit-music-wont-perform-for-mostly-white-audiences/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/movies/snow-on-tha-bluff-about-the-drug-scene-in-atlanta.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/united-states/bronzeville-neighborhood-chicago/
- Forget the beef with J. Cole – here’s why Noname is an …
- www.nme.com › features › no-name-j-cole-snow-on-th…
- https://www.npr.org/2019/02/10/692701998/we-need-to-exist-in-multitudes-noname-talks-artistic-independence-women-in-rap-a
- https://djbooth.net/features/2020-07-20-j-cole-snow-on-tha-bluff-secrecy-noname-omission-op-ed
- https://www.thefader.com/2018/09/11/noname-room-25-interview
