Eminem vs. J. Cole Beef, '8 Mile' Trailer Park 'Sh*t Was F*cked Up' Diss? Rapper To Open Rent-Free '2014 Forest Hills Drive' Home For Single Moms & Children
With the success of his growing hip-hop career, Roc Nation rapper J. Cole wants to "give back" to his community in a big way. So - what does that have anything to do with "insulting" infamous Detroit emcee, Eminem?
Well, according to the self-described Born Sinner, almost nothing compares to the harsh living realities of "8 Mile."
So, here's the plan. Cole hopes to offer rent-free housing at 2014 Forest Hills Drive in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Not only is this the name of his highly-acclaimed new album - it's also the home where the 30-year-old singer grew-up. Perhaps this single-family residence can be transformed into a temporary haven for single mothers and their children.
In a recent interview with the Combat Jack Show, Cole reveals:
"What we gonna do - we still working it out right now, obviously it's a detailed, fragile situation I don't wanna play with - my goal is to have that be a haven for families. So every two years a new family will come in, [and] they live rent-free."
Cole enjoyed spending his childhood in this nice, safer area of town. And he wants to help other struggling kids share that "privileged" experience.
The "Crooked Smile" crooner continues by referring to Slim Shady's own tough upbringing:
"The idea is that it's a single mother with multiple kids, and she's coming from a place where all her kids [are] sharing a room. She might have two, three kids - they're sharing a room. She gets to come here rent-free. I want her kids to feel how I felt when we got to the house... In the South, especially in North Carolina, it's like this... That was my first glimpse of the hood. This is not Eminem, '8 Mile.' Sh*t was f*cked up. No disrespect to people that's still in the trailers and sh*t, but that's what it is."
So not a blatent diss, but still...
After living on a military base as a youngster, Cole's parents separated. That's when his mom moved four-year-old Cole and his brother to a trailer park in Spring Lake, which offered some rather hard times:
"We moved to the trailer park in Spring Lake. It was my first taste of like, 'Oh, sh*t. This is nothing like where we came from.' I knew the energy was not right. I knew my mother was the only white lady in the neighborhood, and there was no man in the house," Cole said.
Wonder if Em's experience was any similar, or if the Shady XV mastermind would actually be offended by Cole's opinions?
This comes soon after Cole denied blasting the "Rap God" in his recent hit tune, "Fire Squad" -
Check out the full interview here. Pretty awesome act of kindness, right?