"Middle Child" is a J. Cole favorite, and Kodak Black shares what he thinks about being noted on the track. The single arrived on 2019's Revenge of the Dreamers III, and the introspective song quickly earned praise from artists and fans. On the lead single, Cole spins bars about Kodak, comparing him to associates he knows from back home.
“I’m dead in the middle of two generations / I’m little bro and big bro all at once," rapped Cole. "Just left the lab with young 21 Savage / I’m ’bout to go and meet Jigga for lunch/ Had a long talk with the young n*gga Kodak / Reminded me of young n*ggas from ‘Ville / Straight out the projects, no fakin’, just honest / I wish that he had more guidance, for real."
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HipHopDX caught up with Kodak on the American Music Awards red carpet and spoke with the Florida hitmaker about the Dreamville boss.
“J. Cole, I rock with him tough. He gives me great advice, and he wanna see me win," says Kodak. "Some people will try to hold information back, he give it to me raw and stuff like that.”
Cole faced some pushback for mentioning artists like XXXTentacion and Tekashi 6ix9ine. In a 2019 interview with XXL, he responded to concerns.
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“I get it, there’s some people out there that do things that a person can’t fathom loving anybody that can do that,” he said at the time. “But nobody becomes that way overnight. Nobody is born that way. That sh*t is a product of unfortunate circumstances and mishaps in the person’s life, too many to count."
“N*gga, I know many murderers. I still speak to them. These dudes have committed the ultimate crime in God’s eyes, or whatever, where they’ve taken a life. These people I still speak to, love, and have compassion for. I see how in their life that happened, how you became a murderer. Maybe some of them don’t even know, don’t even have a chance to process why they become the monsters that they are.”