{"id":2270528,"date":"2026-02-06T22:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2270528"},"modified":"2026-02-06T22:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:11:12","slug":"j-cole-mournfully-recalls-distancing-from-friend-in-new-song-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/j-cole-mournfully-recalls-distancing-from-friend-in-new-song-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"J. Cole Mournfully Recalls Distancing From Friend in New Song “SAFETY”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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J. Cole<\/a> explores the regret over distancing one\u2019s self from a childhood friend due to their sexual orientation in \u201cSAFETY<\/a>,\u201d a song off his new album The Fall-Off<\/em><\/a> that has been interpreted as being written from the perspective of another friend.<\/p>\n

The track\u2014produced by Cole, DZL, Wu10, Sucuki, and Powers Pleasant\u2014finds the Dreamville<\/a> co-founder looking back on a fractured relationship with a late friend, named in the third verse as Quay.<\/p>\n

Cole opens the verse by laying claim to a renewed \u201cappreciation\u201d for life, which the narrator credits to experiencing the deaths of \u201cso many of our peers\u201d over the years. Quay, he continues, died from \u201cmedical conditions that were too advanced for doctors to intervene,\u201d later clarifying that the cause of death was believed by some to be Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, i.e., AIDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe been knowin’ what team he acknowledged \/ Since we was kids, he lived in a closet,\u201d Cole raps. \u201cBut that changed soon as he went to college \/ Up there wilin’ at A&T, runnin’ with fruity types \/ Dick-in-the-booty types, tight pants \/ Switchin\u2019 their hips, paintin\u2019 their nails \/ So n***as from the Ville had to distance ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, the narrator recalls the friend moving to Atlanta (\u201cI guess, so he could be free\u201d) and looks back on him being seen \u201cyears later\u201d in drag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shook my head, but still, I began to feel bad \/ It\u2019s like his lifestyle was blockin\u2019 all the love that we had,\u201d he raps. <\/p>\n

In the next line, the narrator admits that he and others turned their backs on the friend, with some referring to him using the f-slur. However, Cole stops himself from actually rapping the slur in the middle of the line, cutting himself off mid-sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, times changed, I know that\u2019s wrong \/ Now that we grown, I wish I could apologize \u2018cause we did him wrong,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Hear \u201cSAFETY\u201d in full below.<\/p>\n

The Fall-Off<\/em>, a double-disc affair that Cole says was \u201cmade with intentions to be my last,\u201d is out now. Listen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.complex.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J. Cole explores the regret over distancing one\u2019s self from a childhood friend due to their sexual orientation in \u201cSAFETY,\u201d a song off his new album The Fall-Off that has been interpreted as being written from the perspective of another friend. The track\u2014produced by Cole, DZL, Wu10, Sucuki, and Powers Pleasant\u2014finds the Dreamville co-founder looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2270529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2270528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/J-Cole-Mournfully-Recalls-Distancing-From-Friend-in-New-Song.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2270528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2270530,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270528\/revisions\/2270530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2270529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}