Rather, Cole’s ego got in the way, leading him to direct his energy instead toward 28-year-old Chicago rapper and poet Noname rather than continuing-and possibly, furthering-the conversation about the longer, more transformative fight underway.
Somehow though, “Snow on the Bluff,” couldn’t just address these broader issues, even as legislators begin grappling with police violence in tangible ways that could usher in true social change, including the possibility of demilitarizing and defunding police forces across the United States. We know Cole’s lyrics have a tendency to tap into our collective rage, and he often backs up his rhymes with direct action, taking to the streets in his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
So, of course, Cole’s voice was both expected and welcomed amid an uprising in the United States, fueled by the quick succession of murders of Black people- George Floyd in Minneapolis Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Georgia-at the hands of vigilantes and police officers. In many ways, we’ve come to expect Cole to speak to the range of issues that plague Black Americans, whether it’s voicing dissatisfaction with the tenure of Obama’s presidency (“A man can dream can’t he?/ No disrespect, but in terms of change, I haven’t seen any/ Maybe he had good intentions, but was stifled by the system, and was sad to learn he couldn’t bring any,” he rapped on Late Show with David Letterman in 2014) or skillfully crafting “ Change,” a stand out track from his 2016 album, 4 Your Eyez Only, to detail the fictional shooting of a 22-year-old boy named James and call for an end to intraracial violence (though, notably, the song did little to address the relationship between poverty and crime). Cole repeating “All we wanna do is break the chains off/ All we wanna do is be free” and rapping that “That there ain’t no gun they make that can kill my soul,” sat in our chests, a reminder not only of his rapping prowess, but also of his ability to translate our immovable pain and lingering trauma into song. We felt him in 2014 when he released “ Be Free,” a single with artwork that featured a photo of Lesley McSpadden, Mike Brown, Jr.’s mother, looking grief-stricken and distraught after her son’s death at the hands of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
Cole’s also a genius rapper who has the prescient ability to use his talent on the mic to speak to the moment, especially when said moment involves rampant police brutality and broader racial discrimination, and he does so in a way that we can feel. That’s one of the only conclusions that can be drawn from his decision to slickly address Noname on “ Snow on tha Bluff,” a surprise track he released on June 17. Cole (Photo credit: The Come Up Show/Flickr/Creative Commons)
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