J. Cole explores the regret over distancing one’s self from a childhood friend due to their sexual orientation in “SAFETY,” a song off his new album The Fall-Off that has been interpreted as being written from the perspective of another friend.
The track—produced by Cole, DZL, Wu10, Sucuki, and Powers Pleasant—finds the Dreamville co-founder looking back on a fractured relationship with a late friend, named in the third verse as Quay.
Cole opens the verse by laying claim to a renewed “appreciation” for life, which the narrator credits to experiencing the deaths of “so many of our peers” over the years. Quay, the narrator continues, died from “medical conditions that were too advanced for doctors to intervene,” later clarifying that the cause of death was believed by some to be Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, i.e., AIDS.
“We been knowin' what team he acknowledged / Since we was kids, he lived in a closet,” Cole raps. “But 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’ their hips, paintin’ their nails / So n***as from the Ville had to distance ourselves.”
From there, the narrator recalls the friend moving to Atlanta (“I guess, so he could be free”) and looks back on him being seen “years later” in drag.
“I shook my head, but still, I began to feel bad / It’s like his lifestyle was blockin’ all the love that we had,” Cole raps from this perspective.
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.
“Nah, times changed, I know that’s wrong / Now that we grown, I wish I could apologize ‘cause we did him wrong,” the narrator adds.
Hear “SAFETY” in full below.
The Fall-Off, a double-disc affair that Cole says was “made with intentions to be my last,” is out now. Listen here.