Disclaimer: Viewing this video may require a few tissues.
J. Cole has dropped the latest visual for his new track, “Crooked Smile” featuring TLC and it’s a pretty deep video. Instead of focusing on the topic at hand, a “crooked smile,” Cole instead used his platform to pay tribute to Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year-old little black girl from Detroit who was shot and killed by a white police officer when cops raided the home of a murder suspect back in 2010.
In the emotional video, J. Cole plays a drug dealer who is being watched by the DEA. His family comes to visit, however, things take a turn for the worse when his house is stormed by cops. Halfway through the video, you can’t help but start bracing yourself in anticipation of what may happen next.
Watch it below:
This is actually the second version of the video. Cole revealed to Miss Info that he shot a video for it back in July, but tossed it because he needed something with more of a message to match the song.
“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.”
He also added:
[“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.
This is the follow up to the “Power Trip,” video which features J. Cole murdering his love interest’s boyfriend (played by Miguel).
Read more: Necole Bitchie.com: J. Cole Releases Powerful ‘Crooked Smile’ Video http://necolebitchie.com/2013/09/18/j-cole-releases-powerful-crooked-smile-video/#ixzz2fJ9Gdr3M
