"QUESTION!"

words. 

 "...[J] Cole didn’t just drop off the track and call it a day. He went to Ferguson — not with a video guy, but with his buddies, unshaven and in sweats — and he paid his respects to Brown and met the congregated people. In an interview with Complex, he explained that he wasn’t planning on talking with the media, but that he has a buddy who worked at the magazine, so, OK, what the hell. And for a few minutes, he spoke, candidly and affectingly and with humor, about how hard this was hitting him. “Do you think that artists owe their fans … some form of activism?” he’s asked. “No,” he says. “Artists owe whatever they feel. Whatever hits you in your spine, that’s what you owe.” .

..That a rapper can have a positive impact by speaking out on a situation like this is evident here. Cole made a fan out of me; he wasn’t afraid to show up in Ferguson and speak his thoughts, as fragmented and weary as they might be.1 And the question of a rapper’s responsibility in these situations is an important and interesting one. As BuzzFeed pointed out earlier this week, so far, despite a track record of vocal activism, our rap megastars have stayed quiet on Ferguson. Do they owe us otherwise?"

GRANTLAND: Killer Mike, J. Cole, and Hip-Hop’s Response to Ferguson