J. Cole Says ‘G.O.M.D.’ Video Is More About Unity Than Slavery

There’s probably not another rapper of J. Cole’s level of prominence who makes as many poignant statements in his music videos. From the moment the clip for Cole’s “G.O.M.D.” starts the music fades into the background as the vivid story set during slavery unfolds.

Portraying a vigilant freedom fighter, Cole’s character is quick to seize a moment for himself and his fellow slaves to escape. Cole says the video directed by Lawrence Lamont and shot on a planation in Napoleonville, Louisiana isn’t really about slavery. “The video is really more of a commentary on the need for unity and togetherness more so than it is a comment on racism because [the black community] knows—we all know about oppression. We’re all aware of that,” he told SaintHeron.com. “What we’re not aware of is the dysfunction within our own community.”

image

The track produced by the North Carolina native does include an interpolation of “Berta, Berta,” Branford Marsalis’s rendition of a song black prisoners sang while working on railroads. Cole first heard the song in the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson, and was so moved that he sought it out.

"So I looked it up, and it turns out they did a TV version of the play," he explained. "I went and watched that joint, and sure enough, they sung that same song." Cole said the producer of the soundtrack for the television movie was selling it so he purchased it. "It’s a reference to that time, and not necessarily slavery, but like the Jim Crow era South, the video treatment felt that that."

If the video treatment does not feel like an exact match for the song that discusses haters and his struggle to be accepted in Hollywood and at home there’s a reason. Cole originally wrote the concept for another song. “It’s a video idea I had on my last album for a song called ‘Chaining Day,’” he said. “I always wanted to make that statement because it comments on so much.”

Follow Billy Johnson Jr. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Vine