Neighbors

There's much fan speculation over the perspective J. Cole is rapping from across his new album 4 Your Eyez Only, with one theory suggesting pretty much the entire album is meant to be told from his friend's perspective -- the one who, at the end of the preoject (spoiler alert) dies due to his life on the street. While that's a valid take, it's clear that Cole is at least pulling from his own experiences on "Neighbors," a track listed as being "inspired by real events" in the liner notes. Elite, a producer who worked on the album confirmed this to Complex, revealing the song is about a house Cole rented in NC to use as a studio, which ended up being raided after complaints from neighbors who assumed drugs were being sold out of the building. The song finds Cole facing the fact that even as one of hip-hop's most successful acts, his presence in a white neighborhood will still raise red flags for racists. After feeling defeated and paranoid by racism's close proximity, he takes comfort in the idea that he is "selling dope" in the form of his music.

Quotable Lyrics:

I can't sleep cause I'm paranoid
Black in a white man territory
Cops bust in with the army guns
No evidence of the harm we done
Just a couple neighbors that assume we slang
Only time they see us we be on the news, in chains, damn