i’m not a hip hop head. with that said, i got lots of side eyes when i told a group of rap scholars that j. cole and big krit are the artists i’m most excited to see at next weekend’s rock the bells concert. admittedly, i didn’t pay close attention to rap music until these two caught my attention three years ago. sue me. while born sinner, j. cole’s new album, hasn’t made its way into my favorites quite yet, i appreciate the message behind “crooked smile,” his latest release featuring tlc. his short film dedicated to aiyana jones, the 7-year old child who was killed by police during a raid in 2010, brought me to tears. at the end, j. cole asks that we reconsider the war on drugs — for a mainstream artist to take a stand against one of the biggest injustices since jim crow is a reminder of why i bang so hard with “fayettnam’s finest.”
