J. Cole included the dumbest lyric about Cam Reddish on his surprise new album
J. Cole should have deleted this one sooner.
J. Cole just dropped a surprise new album, Might Deleter Later, which included a diss track about Kendrick Lamar.
The 12-song project also had a song called “Pi” featuring Daylyt and Ab-Soul. It has samples from “Rainmaker” by Kevin Moore and “Otis” by Kanye West and Jay-Z. It isn’t a very a good song and it is fairly forgettable if you aren’t following the lyrics as you’re listening.
“Pi” does include some disturbing transphobic lyrics, however, that should not be tolerated. The rapper is getting deservedly criticized for putting this on the record and it is a low moment for both Cole and the album as a whole.
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Although this was the worst part of the song, there is another couple of lines on “Pi” getting some backlash as well.
Cole is not only a basketball fan (who even dunked in the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game) but he has played semi-professionally as well. He enjoys making references to the NBA in his music.
When he tried a hoops metaphor on this song, he bricked the shot:
“Seen plenty bodies trembling, resembling Cam Reddish
So full of potential, but never given a real chance to develop”
It is easy to see what Cole was attempting here and it was a noble effort.
He wanted to talk about people who didn’t get a chance to live their full lives, which is a devastating reality.
"Resembling Cam Reddish, so full of potential but never given a real chance to develop."
J Cole name drops Cam Reddish on his new album that dropped tonight. pic.twitter.com/vT0043VvCf
— The Official Atlanta Hawks Sports Network (@AtlantaHawksSN) April 5, 2024
But the allusion to Reddish here comes up ridiculously short.
Reddish was a high school star and a college standout at Duke who now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He has earned around $20 million in NBA contracts, per HoopsHype, and still potentially has a long pro career ahead of him.
A former No. 10 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-7 forward has played for four NBA teams — including the two biggest markets with the Lakers and New York Knicks. The 24-year-old is averaging 24.0 minutes per game as a professional basketball player.
Despite shooting less than 40.0 percent from the field in the pros when the league average is 47.5 percent this season, Reddish has now appeared in the starting lineup for about half of the games he has played in the NBA. He has gotten a shot to prove himself so many times and his time isn’t up.
There are plenty of players who were never given a real chance to develop and thus never realized their potential on the court. This lyric maybe could have worked if he mentioned someone else but Reddish doesn’t make sense here whatsoever.