Land of the Snakes by J. Cole Song Info
“LAnd of the Snakes” is the 3rd song on J. Cole's 2013 album "Born Sinner". The song samples OutKast's 'Da Art of Storytellin' (Part 1)' and depicts Cole’s promiscuous affairs with women, something he enjoys in the choruses but regrets in the third verse, when he runs into a woman he once had a one night stand with and realizes that it hurt her. He is referring to himself as having once been (and possibly still being) a snake for hitting it and quitting it. The stylization of the title (LAnd instead of Land) is purposefully done to highlight the location of where he ran into the old female in the third verse. "The whole I’m the snake that I was supposed to be watching out for, and ironically I’m meeting that girl in LA. The whole song is just about being in LA, the place where people can lose themselves. I love LA. When I’m talking about LA I ain’t talking about Inglewood, I’m talking about Hollywood, ‘cause when you a celebrity and you go to LA you’re not going to Watts, you’re going to Hollywood. That song’s about my love for LA, but how dangerous I see it is, ‘cause I see people—rappers, whoever—and they start to believe ‘I’m this character’ and you lose touch with reality, so song is a warning for that. But then on the third verse, I meet this girl in LA who reminds me that ‘Yo, I’m no better. I’m the snake to her. I did her dirty. To some people that might seem like a trivial thing, but to her that’s real like “Yo, I fucked you never called me, and I never forgot that. That was ten years ago and I still didn’t forget.” But never saying that, but I know you’re thinking that, so I’m the snake to her, I’m the shitty dude. Meanwhile, I’m walking around nervous about everybody else being shitty, or being fake or being whatever." - Via KnockMadness.tv
