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Music

J Cole Appears to be Talking About Kanye West's Fall From Grace in New Song "False Prophets"

In a documentary previewing his upcoming '4 Your Eyez Only' album, Cole takes on a few unnamed rappers.

After announcing that his fourth studio album, 4 Your Eyez Only, would be coming on December 9 on Thursday, J Cole released a documentary called Eyez on Tidal which previews music from the project. In the doc, there's a music video around the 30:40 mark for a track called "False Prophets," in which Cole appears to take shots at a few unnamed rappers. In the first verse, he calls out a "genius," and it seems like he's touching on Kanye West:

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Life is a balance
You lose your grip you could slip into an abyss
No doubt, you see these niggas trippin'
Ego in charge of every move, he's a star
And we can't look away due to the days when he caught our hearts
He's falling apart but we deny it
Justifying the half-assed shit he drop, we always buy it
When he tell us he a genius but it's clearer lately
It's been hard for him to look into the mirror lately
There was a time when this nigga was my hero maybe
That's the reason why his fall from grace is hard to take
'Cause I believed him when he said his shit was purer and he the type of nigga swear he real but all around is fake
The women, the dickriders, you know, the yes men
Nobody with the balls to say something to contest him
So it grows out of control
Until the person that he truly was all along is starting to show
Wonder what happened. Maybe it's my fault
for idolizing niggas based off the words that he rapping
But come to find out, these niggas don't even write they shit
Hear some new style bubbling up and then they bite this shit
hat's what I get for lying to myself
But fuck it, what's more important is he's crying out got help
While the world's egging him on, I'm begging him to stop
Been playing his old shit knowing he won't top it.
False prophets.

Surveying the Twitter timeline, many people seem to believe that Cole also takes shots at Drake's alleged hiring of ghostwriters in the first verse. And lines in the second verse like "Every time I see him he stressin / Talking 'bout niggas don't fuck with him. The shit is depressing / And I know, he so bitter he can't see his own blessings" also have given people reason to believe that he's touching on Wale's often-criticized thin skin. Watch a clip of "False Prophets" and the full version of Eyez below.

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