His new album, “KOD” which focuses on drug addiction broke both Spotify and Apple Music streaming records for most streams in a day — 36.7 and 64.5 million, respectively. “We live in a society where all this drug use is normalized, it’s the norm, it’s okay, it’s fucking encouraged, it’s fucking promoted,” he says. “You turn on the TV — you feeling down? Of course I’m feeling down, I’m a fucking human being. Try this. Whatever this thing is. Like, nah, how about you actually feel sad and figure out what the fuck it is that got you feeling sad, so you can work on that?”
During the interview, Cole touches on 1985 — a song widely cited as a Lil Pump and Smokepurpp diss.
“It’s really a ‘shoe fits’ situation — several people can wear that shoe,” Cole says. “Why you yelling at your show? (Addressing Smokepurpp’s “Fuck J. Cole rant at a show in Atlanta. “You must feel attacked in some kind of way, must feel offended, and if you feel offended, then that means something rings true, something struck a chord. That’s cool with me. That’s all I ever want to do.”
Elsewhere in the lengthy chart. The Fayetteville rapper credits Kendrick Lamar as the motivation behind KOD. “Kendrick’s show gave me chills because I got to see what it was like to have a hit album performed, and it set off a desire,” Cole says. “It was a recognition — like Oh, I’ll take that again. Like looking at a menu, I’ll have that again.”
The full interview, where he also speaks on Lil Peep’s death, his mother’s battle with drug addiction, Dave Chappelle and being a family man can be read here.
