J. Cole Talks Being “Hurt” By Nas’ Domestic Abuse Allegations And XXXTentacion’s Passing 

Rapper J.Cole reveals how he feels he has moved away from Nas following abuse allegations and XXXTentacion’s passing in new Billboard interview.

Sometimes in life, you have to move away from what you love. In the Billboard interview, Cole said he was “hurt” after hearing about Nas’ abuse scandal with ex-wife Kelis. “I ain’t going to lie. That hurts,” J. Cole tells Billboard‘s Dee Lockett. “It feels weird because I f*ck with Nas, but I just have to be honest. I came up seeing too much f*cked-up shit for that to be acceptable. I don’t care who it is. I don’t f*ck with people abusing women, and I don’t f*ck with people not taking care of their kids.”

The Dreamville rapper also highlighted his previous conversations with late rapper XXXTentacion. “He started off the conversation literally on some, like — he didn’t even say hello. He started off basically saying, ‘I’m not on your level yet.’ He was talking about spiritually and mentally, and that was intense because I was like, ‘Huh? I’m not on no level.’ He was praising me while also saying he was going to achieve whatever it is he felt that I had. I’ve dealt with mentally ill people in my life before, many of them. And right away, I notice that this kid is super passionate and smart, but I could also see that he was so deep in his mind,” said Cole.

Cole empathized with Tentacion’s rough past. “My first response was, ‘Man, I hope maybe one day I’ll get a chance to talk to this kid and figure out if there’s any place that I can help.’ Because anybody who would do the shit that he did … Hurt people hurt people. I’ve walked through prisons and talked to these dudes who got life. They took someone’s life at 16 or 17 years old. You haven’t had the chance to process your trauma at that age. I’ma be sympathetic to a kid who has clearly been through so much f*cked-up shit that he inflicted this on someone else,” said the rapper.

Cole also revealed he didn’t vote in the 2018 presidential election even though he was in full support of #HillaryClinton.