J. Cole Predicts Bleak Future For Music Industry With “cLOUDS”

J. Cole’s heads are in the “cLOUDS” in his new release, and with his bird’s eye perspective, he issues a chilling preemptive prediction for the state of the music industry in the coming years.

Last week, the Dreamville mastermind shared the track via the blog attached to his Inevitable audio series mere days after he vowed to be more “consistent” in his approach to updating the forum and releasing music for his fans and supporters. The aforementioned track “cLOUDS” captures some of J. Cole’s most introspective and thoughtful bars as he contemplates his mortality in a world changing faster than he appears to be aging.

“Just wanted to share,” J. Cole wrote in the blog attached to the track. “Made this a few days ago, then i added a second verse and was like ‘man I got a blog now, I can put whatever I want up there.’”

He added, “I didn’t have a title 20 minutes ago when I decided to really put this up. But now I got one ‘cLOUDs’. – produced by DZL, Omen, and small contributions from me.”

Along with sharing a brief forward for the track, revealing the producers and other details about the record, Cole also shared the poignant lyrics for the release. In the second and final verse of the song, Cole gets candid about the state of the world, revealing his opinion that the erasure of humanity is slowly eroding before our eyes by technology.

“I seen babies turn fiends, addicted to the screen/Their dad share’s, Cashier’s replaced by machines,” he raps. “Don’t buy, subscribe so you can just stream/Your Content, like rent you won’t own a thing/Before long all the songs the whole world sings’ll/Be generated by latest of ai regimes/As all of our favorite artists erased by it scream/From the way side, “ayyy whatever happened to human beings!?”

The comments section on the blog erupted with praise, as fans appeared to celebrate J. Cole’s renewed efforts to rollout his anticipated album The Fall-Off.

“This good for about 3 months,” a user wrote before adding, “Please take your time in that album you understand it now.”

Another user added, “Jermaine .. this is absolutely an amazing masterpiece. Thank You, Thank you & Thank you again!”

Additionally, another user commented on how “cLOUDS” speaks volumes to the growing trend of loss of ownership within the digital age.

“Love the bars about ai and people being comfortable with not owning anything nowadays,” the user wrote. “Ive went back to an Ipod and purchasing cd’s and music off of bandcamp when i can to make sure i get to keep what I pay for and to give the artists more money. Streaming doesnt pay s###.”