J. .Cole is depicted as a house slave in the official music video for his track “G.O.M.D.”
Within the visual, Cole organizes an uprising after he steals his master’s keys.
The concept for the video, which was directed by Lawrence Lamont, originated nearly two years ago. It was filmed on an actual plantation in Napoleonville, Louisiana.
Saint Heron caught up with Cole while he was in the Bayou state to talk about his new music video and the similarities between his latest offerings and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly.
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Cole says to Solange’s lifestyle media platform that he originally intended on using the idea for the visual for another song off of his Born Sinner album.
“Honestly, it’s a video idea I had on my last album for a song called ‘Chaining Day,’” Cole says. “I always wanted to do that video. I had that video idea in my head for like two years or so and I always wanted to make that statement because it comments on so much. So the video idea was honestly already there before the song was ever made.”
The Fayetteville, North Carolina native decided that since “G.O.M.D.” samples an “old, field song that used to be sung by railroad workers,” his slave-revolt idea would correlate appropriately with the song.
Although, Lawrence Lamont was enlisted to direct the video, Cole says he originally wanted to work with another high-profile Hip Hop director.
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“I wanted to do like a Hype Williams-style video for this song so bad, because I’ve never done one of those,” he says. “I felt like if I did do one of those, this would be the song to do it with. So, I battled with that urge to go the typical route with this video, because I feel like that’s what everyone expected. And every video I’ve ever done has never really been expected, so I was just like, ‘Fuck it, let’s do it.’
“The video is really more of a commentary on the need for unity and togetherness more so than it is a comment on racism, because [the black community] knows—we all know about oppression. We’re all aware of that,” he continues. “What we’re not aware of is the dysfunction within our own community. The fact that there are levels to us economically and because of the different skin colors within our own race.”
Cole name-drops a few of his competitors–pals on his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album multiple times. He calls out Drake and Kendrick Lamar on “January 28th” and again on “Note To Self.”
When asked if he discussed the content of his album with Kendrick and vice-versa, Cole says “It wasn’t a conscious effort of, ‘Yo, we’re gonna do it like this.’”
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“But yeah, we do have conversations when we get together about the same shit that we’re talking about and rapping about,” he says. “Everything that I’m revealing on my album, I was telling him. Like, ‘Yo this is what I figured out. I see this shit like this. I might not even be doing this shit no more because I see this.’ I’m telling him all this.”
Watch “G.O.M.D.” below:
For more J.Cole coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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