J. Cole Drops Full ‘4 Your Eyez Only’ Documentary on YouTube
J. Cole has made his recent HBO documentary 4 Your Eyez Only available in full on YouTube. 4 Your Eyez Only, which premiered on HBO and related platforms in April, sees Cole traveling through Atlanta, Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and other cities as he shows the challenges many face in everyday life. Watch the doc, directed by Cole and Scott Lazer, above.
“I felt like it would be mad powerful for black people to see black people talking to each other,” Cole told the New York Times ahead of the doc’s HBO premiere. “And you see a rapper who’s considered one of the biggest in the game, just listening. These are people that never get to be heard, by the world or even by each other.”
4 Your Eyez Only, the album, was recently certified platinum (with no features, of course) by the Recording Industry Association of America. Cole’s fourth album was released back in December, spawning the singles “Neighbors” and “Deja Vu.” In an interview with Complex following the album’s release, co-executive producer Elite opened up about the true story that inspired the “Neighbors” track.
“Apparently what happened was, we were all in Austin, Texas, for SXSW; thankfully no one was in the house when this went down,” Elite said. “One of the neighbors told the police we were growing weed or selling drugs out of this house. And there was a huge investigation, like a million-dollar investigation. They flew helicopters over, sent an entire SWAT team armed with weapons, broke down the door and searched the whole house. Thankfully nobody was in the house.”
Next up is the 4 Your Eyez Only world tour, which kicks off in Columbia, South Carolina in June.