'The Fall-Off' wraps J. Cole’s long tribute to Fayetteville | Opinion

So, I've listened through the new J. Cole record twice. I am not going to attempt to review "The Fall-Off," released Feb. 6 and which is the  7 th  No. 1  Billboard album for the Fayetteville-raised rapper, who was born Jermaine Cole. 

If you want a track-by-track breakdown, I'll  refer you to my colleague, Rakeem Jones, our resident Cole expert at The Fayetteville Observer. Keem and Cole are about the same age, around 40, and visited many of the same haunts in the city's hip-hop scene, so he's got that covered. Meanwhile, J. Cole has announced his world tour, with a planned stop in Fayetteville at the Crown Coliseum with tickets going on sale Friday, Feb. 20.

More: J. Cole returns to Fayetteville for "The Fall-Off Tour"

What I want to do is talk about how we slightly (!) older Fayetteville residents might view the city's most famous music artist, and the meaning of the international attention he's brought to "the Ville" or "FayetteNam" — as he likes to call our hometown.  

I'll say at the outset I'm already tired of folks posting on social media the unoriginal claim — usually played for laughs to the cheap seats — that Cole in his lyrics makes Fayetteville look super-dangerous. Fayetteville, like most mid-sized to larger cities, does have crime issues. Just the other day, I was in a City Council meeting listening to the findings of a study on gun violence in the city that showed the magnitude of the problem, especially among young folks. 

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That said, I've been listening to rap since another Fayetteville artist, R&B legend Bill "Fatback" Curtis, recorded  the first rap record,  "King Tim III (Personality Jock)," and I know a little something about the genre. Rappers tend to portray their hometowns as rough-and-tough, often focusing on the people, parts of the city and circumstances that are generally, and often intentionally, forgotten about. 

When Jay-Z rapped about his Brooklyn life, or Lil Wayne about New Orleans or OutKast about Atlanta or Ice Cube about South Central Los Angeles — their takes were not what you would see on a Chamber of Commerce brochure promoting their cities. 

While Cole's portrayal of the Ville can be dark, he also weaves plenty of hope into a package that comprises introspection, lyrical complexity and sweeping ideas. He reminds young folks coming up behind him in Fayetteville that he made it and they can, too, in whatever they dream.

'FayetteNam' does not mean the same thing to everybody

I know there is a constituency, especially among we old heads, that believes Cole does us no favors by calling the city "FayetteNam." I get that. A lot of people in politics, business, education and on the community level have put in much work helping the city try to move past the outdated image that carries back to when streetwalkers walked Hay Street downtown.  

Cole, who was born in Germany, is a son of the Army, but in listening to his work, that old image is not what he's referring to — the idea more relates to that gritty portrayal of the city mentioned above. To me, he intends "FayetteNam," "the Ville" and the somewhat mysterious designation "2-6", as terms of endearment more than anything. Does that seem like a stretch? There is plenty of precedent; recall that film director Spike Lee named his love letter to his home town, "Crooklyn."

Artists' lenses are different.

J. Cole's 'Fall-Off' is an homage to Fayetteville, NC

And that brings me around to my final point, which is that Cole's work in general, and "The Fall-Off" in particular, is an homage to Fayetteville. He wanted to put the city on the map in the hip-hop world and in this, what is said to be his last album, he has fully achieved the goal.  

If you don't feel you can handle the bad language, get the clean version, if for nothing else than to hear references to local places like Seventy-First Middle — where Cole says he dated his first girl — to Gray's Creek to Hope Mills to Johnson Street. The idea that millions of music fans all over the United States and in places like Johannesburg, Vancouver, Berlin, Switzerland, Zurich, Amsterdam and London, all of which are on his just-announced  Fall-Off Tour,  are right now vibing to a song named "Bunce Road Blues" is still wild to me.

(That tune, by the way, is one of my favorite tracks, a spirited anthem featuring Tems on vocals. But it is "Life Sentence," the ironically titled song about his marriage, that I have put on repeat rotation with its touching lyrics and dreamy bass and acoustic guitar work by  Kelvin "Wu10" Wooten  and Steve Bilodeau.)

Here's the real meaning of all those J. Cole billboards

I have not seen Cole's team roll out so many billboards in Fayetteville in support of an album before, like he has done with "The Fall-Off," not even "2014 Forrest Hills," the album named for his literal address growing up off Stamper Road. Surely you have seen the flood of billboards — they are all over town. On the one hand, that's just a smart business decision to sell heavy to your hometown. But I also think a big part of him wants this record to do exceptionally well, here, in this specific part of the globe, where he was raised. 

Opinion Pitts: A new J. Cole mural near Fayetteville State is part of an NC project

Some artists are not immediately embraced by their hometown. A famous example is the  initial cold reception  Buddy Holly got in Lubbock, Texas, one of many locales that at that time were plum scared of rock and roll. They love him now.

Some Fayetteville folks, who will never like rap, and cannot separate the man from the music, will never like Cole. Some felt the same about rock and roll.

Some will refuse to see this college graduate, father, family man and astute businessman  as a proper representative of the city. OK, they'll live. 

But let me share a scene from this past weekend in Raleigh, on Fayetteville Street, no less. My family and I were walking back from participating in a protest, and we passed an open shop pumping J. Cole's "The Villest" from the new record.  

I got the man's attention and said over the music, "We're from Fayetteville!" and he nodded with a big smile. 

It was a nice moment.  

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at  mpitts@fayobserver.com . 

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: J. Cole's new album makes Fayetteville NC its main character | Opinion