While on the red carpet at this year’s American Music Awards, Roc Nation rapper J Cole chatted with Billboard. During his interview, the St. John’s University alumni talked about his new single “Miss America” and how wanted to “change the conversation” in mainstream Hip-Hop. The track is featured on his sophomore album, Born Sinner. The single received mixed reviews from music critics and Cole himself admitted that he is taking a risk with the release of the track.
On his new single “Miss America” and how he wanted to “change the conversation” in mainstream Hip-Hop:
“We have a responsibility and a certain power that comes with making the music and playing the music, and that comes with a responsibility to keep things fresh, and not to fall into the mold of what’s traditional,” says Cole. “I have singles that fall into that [mold], but if I can use my power in some kind of way, I’m going to try to use it to shift culture just a little bit.”
A January 28th (J. Cole’s birthday) release date was set for Born Sinner, the follow-up to Cole’s gold-selling debut album, Cold World: The Sideline Story which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 217,000 copies in its first week. However, the album may not be hitting stores until after that date.
“In a perfect world, I’ll shoot for January 28,” says Cole, “but even when I released that, honestly I knew that was very far-fetched.”
Cole’s sophomore album may be pushed back because he plans to work on different branding opportunities to coincide with the album as well as a short film–“something way more expansive than a music video,” he claims — that will begin shooting in December.
On his new album being a more serious effort than his debut:
”The story of corruption — corruption of an artist when commercial appeal is involved, or corruption of a relationship when temptation is involved, or corruption of a government when capitalism is involved. It’s a lot of things. I don’t want anybody to think it’s so heavy, but it deals with those things.”
Source: Billboard
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