“I guess the neighbors think I’m sellin’ dope, sellin’ dope/ Okay, the neighbors think I’m sellin’ dope, sellin’ dope” J. Cole raps in the intro to his 4 Your Eyez Only cut ‘Neighbors.’
In a subsequent interview, Cole producer Elite confirmed that 'Neighbors' was a true story.
Cole had rented a house in an upscale North Carolina neighborhood to use to record the album. One of his new neighbors got spooked by the constant stream of "suspicious" (black) people entering the home, and called the cops.
Apparently what happened was, we were all in Austin, Texas, for SXSW; thankfully no one was in the house when this went down," Elite explained. 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.J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only documentary premiered on HBO last night, and in it there is footage of the SWAT team raid.
It seems like Cole and his crew (literally) dodged a bullet by being down in Austin that day.