J Cole is known as one of the most intelligent and socially conscious rappers of the new

era. His songs are not only feats of lyrical ability, but commentary about the inner city. His

song, “Little Ghetto Nigga” is one of those. After listening to the song, I believe that J Cole is

making the statement that crime in the inner city has more to do with circumstance and situation

than individual choices. When Cole said “Young niggas emulate what's coming out the speakers

So everything we learn came from rappers, not teachers

Cause if we can't relate, then how the hell you gonna reach us?” he is speaking to the lack of

diversity in the public schooling system. This lack of diversity causes young African Americans,

males specifically, to look for role models in an unlikely place, on the radio. This place often is

a place of destruction, as a lot of rappers are not trying to be role models. Often, these rappers are

trying to make enough money to escape their on inner city neighborhoods. Cole further

illustrates the point as he continues and says “Surrounded by crooked cops and preachers, (yea)

Who am I trusting?” In this part, Cole is saying living in the ghetto you can never be sure who

you can trust. Friends become enemies, cops arrest people for fun and don’t care about the actual

crimes and preachers try to give hope in such a dark situation, but since nothing is improving

they only add up to make the whole situation seem even more dark and hopeless. Jay-Z, one of

Cole’s biggest influences, characterized the church problem in his song “Where I’m from” He

said “I’m from the place where the church is the flakiest

And niggas is praying to god so long that they atheist”

No time to think about illegal when your stomachs touching. By any means, nigga, even if the

gun is busting”. When Cole says this he is not only talking about the lack of leadership in these

communities, but also about how young black men see the police and church officials as
untrustworthy. One of the themes of this, and other songs by Cole is the reaching out to inner

city youth, specifically young black men. Cole makes music for everyone, but the young black

man is the primary listener of his music. . Cole finishes his first verse by saying “I see the world

for what it is now

I see the odds is looking slim for our kids now

Cause, uh, it wasn't set up for my people to rise, (yea)

My niggas slang, but I see the pain deep in they eyes

Niggas living like they don't give a fuck

And I don't blame 'em, it's a cold world, live it up! (live it up).” In this, Cole is saying As he

grows older, J. Cole says that he realizes that the mindset of black people living in the ghetto

today is a setup to fail, because they aren’t given the same education and opportunities as people

in the suburbs. That is why he says the odds are lookin slim for his kids, because as a black in

America even today it is hard to be successful. He says people don’t care about their future in the

ghetto because there isn’t much hope for it, as life for them is hard. This is where his “Cole

World, No Blanket” slogan comes from, because the world indeed is cold and offers no real

protection or warmth. He then tells them since it is a cold world, don’t be afraid to live up life.

J Cole’s most common theme in his music is definitely the inequality of the races. From his early

work until the present he’s always seen being white as the equivalent to having a head start in

life. He doesn’t explicitly state it, but J Cole eludes to the fact that for him, and people like him,

selling drugs was the only way to support his family. Cole drew comparisons between the races

and talked about how he had to support his family when he said “Another day in the ville, do I

stay in and chill? (no)

Or go play in the field?

Help my mother paying these bills, you tell me, nigga!

We young, black, some strapped

Them whites got they lunch pack for school, we had our guns packed”. In these lines, you can

almost hear the animosity towards well off white people who did not have to struggle the way he

and him family had. He also talks about how guns are an important part in his neighborhood.

Cole is from Fayetteville, a high crime city in North Carolina, this early exposer to poverty and

crime is what gives his music the element of realism that most rappers can’t duplicate. In the

inner city, the biggest antagonist is the police, and Cole seems to have a disdain for police who

take advantage of their position of authority to abuse people, he refers to them as “crooked”.

Cole says “And all a nigga wanna do is take his momma from that

But they'd rather lock us up and make sure we don't come back

You kill a nigga over beef and cheddar even better

Just one less coon they won't have to arrest soon

Fuck a crooked cop three times”. In these lines, Cole is saying that the system of drugs and death

is beneficial to the police because it makes their jobs easier, instead of arresting young black men

for selling drugs to support their families, they can just wait till the black people kill each other

to make their jobs easier.

As you can see, there is a lot of negativity and sadness in these lyrics, you might think this is a

doom and gloom song. However, Cole finishes the song by saying “The things that I've seen,

(seen)

The dreams that I dream, (dream)

The rain in my sky

The pain in my eyes

But know that it gets better baby

Hope that it get better baby

Don't let this world break you, (you) naw, naw

Don't let them break you, (you)

I believe J Cole wrote this to end the song to say that no matter how bleak life looks, especially

in the inner city, that you can escape it. He also wants the listener to know that it is a “Cold

Wold” and it will try to break you, but to be successful you have to rise above your situation and

become stronger by it.