S. Samuel
Roc Nation star J. Cole may not have been grinning in his "Crooked Smile" music video but he has reason to now after iconic R&B group TLC showed up for his Las Vegas concert heading into the weekend.
Photos and footage of Cole and TLC sharing the microphone for their “Crooked Smile” collabo have started to surface.
J. Cole served as the only rap act to rock Las Vegas’ third-annual music festival which kicked off on Friday night. Fans of Cole World were treated to a live set including hits from 28-year-old’s two albums Cole World: The Sideline Story, and Born Sinner. Just two days after premiering the video for his current single “Crooked Smile,” J. Cole brought TLC on stage to perform the song for the first-time live. Miguel, who will return to the MGM Grand Arena for Day 2 on Saturday night, got his weekend started early assisting Cole on their hit song “Power Trip.” (Miss Info TV)
Cole uses his new music video to tackle real-life problems like racial profiling and drugs.
J. Cole has premiered the video for “Crooked Smile,” and there’s nothing to smile about when watching the heavy narrative unfold. The song is a pleasant bit of self-empowerment, but the video has an even bigger message, taking on racial profiling and the war on drugs. Dedicated to Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old killed during a police raid in Detroit in 2010, the Sheldon Candis-directed clip features a plea from Cole at the end: “Please reconsider your war on drugs.” Though the track features TLC, T-Boz and Chilli aren’t in the visual, which depicts two family stories that converge during a raid. Midway through the song, as tragedy unfolds, the song drops out and a murky version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays, echoing the sentiments of Cole’s “Miss America.” Watch the social commentary up top. (Idolator)
The rap star recently revealed he wanted to re-shoot the visual.
J. Cole’s ‘Crooked Smile’ single just cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the German-born MC decides to keep the momentum going with the release of the official video. The TLC-assisted track appeared on Cole’s sophomore album ‘Born Sinner’ released back in June. Originally the video was shot in the streets of Brooklyn in early July but Cole chose to scrap the whole thing and re-shoot it. He told MissInfo: “It came out nice but it just didn’t come out exactly how I wanted. It’s such an important song so I want the visual to match. If this was my first video than I would have panicked.” (Direct Lyrics)
Earlier in the summer, Jermaine spoke on wishing “Crooked Smile” was the biggest song in the nation.
” [“Crooked Smile”] deserves to be the number one record in the country. I think Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” gave me hope for a song like this. I think he kinda… as weird as it is, and it’s always happens like this, the White boys got to open the door for Black people at White radio. It happened with Elvis, Eminem, Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, and now hopefully Macklemore with a song like “Thrift Shop” can allow “Crooked Smile” to get its proper shine at Pop Radio, Cole tells Missinfo.tv. “Honestly, you can’t name me many songs better than… I don’t mean to sound crazy, but better than “Power Trip” as singles. They should have gave it a chance at Pop radio. All these Pop PDs weren’t giving rap a chance at all.” (Miss Info TV)
Check out J. Cole’s “Crooked Smile” music video:
