4 Your Eyez Only By J. Cole Analysis

This year, North Carolina rapper J.Cole released his latest album ‘4 Your Eyez Only’. Amongst an incredible line up of songs lies the hidden gem ‘Neighbors’. The song showcases Cole’s experience with the police and the unjust stereotypes that are often placed on black men that are seen in white neighborhoods. The story behind the song begins with Cole’s purchase of a North Carolina home in a predominately white neighborhood. The house, nicknamed the “Sheltuh” was a place for Cole and other Dreamville artists to record. Furthermore, because most of the Dreamville artists are African American, the neighbors in the area began to feel suspicious that the group was growing or selling drugs out of the household. Because of the War on Drugs and the racial stereotypes that surrounds black men, J. Cole and his friends were assumed to be drug dealers simply because the narrative of the War on Drugs depicts minorities as such.
Cole’s neighbors had no idea that he was a double platinum recording artist who advocates for community build up and positivity; they simply saw his skin color and assumed he and his friends must be drug dealers. The perception of black men that these white individuals have been exposed to is filled with violence and drugs; they blindly follow this notion because it is what is most heavily publicized in the media. Eventually, J.Cole’s neighbors end up calling the police and voicing their suspicions. This call launched an estimated $1 million dollar investigation and eventually lead to the “Sheltuh” being raided by armed members of the SWAT team. Ultimately police discovered that no drugs were being sold or grown in the residence. Cole’s song characterized this event by