J. Cole Tells Full Story Behind 'Neighbors' Song: "I wrote 19 Rap verses about this"

‘Neighbors’ was one of the most interesting songs on J. Cole’s latest album 4 Your Eyez Only that got a lot of attention. The song was inspired by a real life incident when one of Jermaine’s neighbors reported to the police that Cole and his homies were illegally growing weed and selling drugs out of his house in North Carolina.

The house was then raided by a special SWAT team at a time when it was vacant and they of course found nothing there. Cole even shared the entertaining footage of the SWAT team raiding the house in the HBO documentary and then later as part of the music video for the song. Cole performed at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Tuesday where he paused the show in between to share a detailed story behind the incident.

Cole keeps it funny, saying he has a good idea about which one of his “white” neighbors reported to the authorities. He then paints the picture of the environment in the studio, telling the audience that it’s a simple place with some IKEA furniture. The rapper jokingly says he was so heated about the incident that he wrote 19 rap verses on it. Watch the 10 minute footage below.