Carmelo Anthony Reflects on J. Cole Being a Top 10 Rapper of All Time

Carmelo Anthony had an interesting take on whether J. Cole should have a spot among the greatest rappers of all time.

During the “FWI or FOH” segment on 7 PM in Brooklyn, Melo was tasked with deciding whether Cole is one of the “GOATS” in the rap game. According to Anthony, Cole should be there, but under specific circumstances.

Melo made it clear that the 7 PM in Brooklyn production team was “disrespectful” for making a list of that nature that didn’t include the greats that came before Cole. However, Melo explained how the hip-hop community should acknowledge that it’s seeing an artist who is actually making it to the end of the rap career.

“We never seen anybody bookend their career and be very serious and intentional about it,” Melo said. “So to that point, where we’re bookending careers, then yeah, J. Cole is definitely a top 10 rapper because we’ve seen the journey and the process of him going from the high school kid to actually reaching a major level of success.”

Melo added that Cole may want to do other things outside of music as a way to redirect his energy, such as directing and producing. The ten-time NBA All-Star also claimed that he could see Cole returning to sports once he hangs up the mic for good: “I think we’ll see him back in sports — documenting sports, content wise, telling stories through his eyes. I think we’re gonna see a lot of that.”

The Dreamville rapper backing out of the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake was also a topic of discussion as Melo saluted Cole for being able to find a sense of peace where he didn’t have to do something he truly didn’t want to do.

“When you’re at peace, there’s nothing that can disturb your peace,” said Anthony. “I’m not willing to allow this bullshit ’cause that’s too much work, and if I gotta put that much work in to deal with that, then I’m losing my balance.”