“Intro”
Hello and welcome to my music protest series on today’s episode I will be analyzing J. Cole’s hit song “Crooked Smile” and also the impact he has on his community.
“They tell me I should fix my grill ’cause I got money now
I ain’t gon’ sit around and front like I ain’t thought about it
A perfect smile is more appealing but it’s funny how”
J. Cole released this in June of 2013, which focuses on dealing with your flaws and not letting anyone tell you otherwise.
J. Cole is always been in the spotlight for doing what’s right and talking about topics that need to be brought up. Now while the song deals with one issue the music video tackles a problem still ravaging America to this day.
In the music video he illustrates the deadly killing of Aiyana Jones who was caught in the crossfire of a police raid
(00-09)
“funeral for a seven year old girl who was shot an killed in a police raid in her family’s home”
Aiyanna was only seven years old during the time of the raid and was sadly taken away from your family and loved ones. It was conducted by the Detroit Police Department’s Special Response Team targeting the suspect in the apartment on the floor above Aiyana Jones.
(00:00-00:11)
“The raid video never publicly released shows the moments leading up to the death of 7 year old Aiyana stanley-jones. Police officer Joseph Weekley is on trial for involuntary manslaughter “
Cole released the music video a month after the formal start of the black lives matter movement he was one of the first celebrities that actively supported them and also more recently was seen at a few black lives matter protests.
(00:00-00:24)
“much like he did following the death of Michael Brown in 2014. As well as Garner that same year. J .Cole found himself on the front lines of protest Saturday May 30th this time he was back in his hometown of Fayetteville North Carolina alongside NBA star Dennis Smith junior marching towards the Fayetteville Police Department in the name of George Floyd”
While the music video was hard to watch J Cole brings light to the harsh reality of the war on drugs and police brutality in general.
( 00:05-00:34)
“ They basically contact me when I listen. You know we want to take a crooked smile and turn it into a social statement short film. Recently we’ve had people lose their lives to innocent individuals during police raids. Basically Petty drug deals and crooked smiles is short film, animated short film by Sheldon Candice.. it’s a dedication to Aiyana stanley-jones who’s 7 year old girl in Detroit who was on my fortune Lee killed during a police raid”
It’s even more disturbing you know that the officers trial ended in a mistrial and there were no additional charges brought up.
(01:03-01:54)
“Case against officer Joseph Weekley who was charged in the death of Aiyanna Jones was a drop here this morning inside of a courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice after to mistrial that Judge Cynthia Hathaway has ruled there will not be a third trial in the shooting death of 7 year old Aiyana Jones someone needs a scapegoat what’s happening here today and what’s Happening Here is justice then put it on me”
Besides standing up to all forms of hate he has also done a lot to give back to his community one thing that he recently started is the Dreamville foundation the goal of the for your organization is to inspire Urban Youth to encourage children in his hometown of Fayetteville to stay in school and provide them with supplies annually.
“getting in the habit of allowing themselves to do something that they wouldn’t normally do because these kids these days especially coming from the environment they coming from the clothes off now is that enough now you’re bad enough for like the realistic Factor matter is we live in a small town in or not smaller than the level of like Lumberton but relative to the New York City’s of the world and the Atlantis and the LAsI feel like that breeds a certain level of my boxing yourself in”
The mission of the organization is to reveal to the urban youth their Limitless potential through positive life all terrain experiences J Cole had this to say about his organization “I want to start the process of showing them there are other forms besides what’s on the screen they don’t have to be a rapper or an athlete there are people who manage the rappers, who book the shows there are many jobs you can do this is about expanding their minds into those possibilities”… J. Cole goes on to say “I’m mad proud that you have kids who have never picked up a book outside of class and who are barely picking up the book in the class now they’re telling me about books they’ve read that aren’t even related to book feels really good”
Additionally to all J. Cole’s done for the community he’s released Songs like “snow on the bluff”
(00:00-00:10)
“be thinkin’ I’m deep, intelligent, fooled by my college degree
My IQ is average, there’s a young lady out there, she way smarter than me
I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times, and I started to read
She mad at these crackers, she mad at these capitalists, mad at these murder police”
In this song J. Cole old to fix the anger a particular woman is feeling she’s angry more celebrities aren’t standing up to the black lives matter movement in the song He pleased with her and tells her instead of getting angry she should focus on educating them instead paste next song be free was inspired by the death of 18 year old Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson Missouri Police Department the death of the unarmed teenager Led to days of protests all across the country
( 00:50-00:01:00)
“All we wanna do is take the chains off
All we wanna do is break the chains off pain
All we wanna do is be free
All we wanna do is be free”
This song “Be Free” highlights the harsh reality black Americans live through on a daily basis.
So as you can see J. Cole has done a lot to stand up for what’s right in his career for being an artist weather be making short films to stand up to the war on drugs with his hit single Crooked Smile or starting a foundation of Mentor children in his hometown of Fayetteville or his constant singles would stand up the police brutality we can see he’s a genuine person that loves doing what’s right.
“Outro”
Leave a Reply