The Story Behind J. Cole’s “Middle Child” Video,

As someone who grew up in the South, I constantly found myself in spaces that were technically integrated, but functionally segregated. Then, there were other spaces that I knew I just wasn’t welcome in, like wherever white people go hunting and four-wheeling. I was instantly reminded of that reality when I watched the music video for J. Cole‘s latest single, “Middle Child.” 

The visuals were conceived by North Carolina rapper/producer/voice actor, and now director Mez (formerly known as King Mez). Throughout the video, Mez puts J. Cole in a series of situations: an award show, a morgue, a drumline performance. But it’s when Cole is placed in spaces like a faux NASCAR rally and a hunting lodge that a pointed commentary starts to form.

When we spoke this Tuesday, Mez explained that he also experienced racism as a ubiquitous undercurrent in Raleigh, where he grew up. “Being in a place like North Carolina, where it’s particularly segregated, you’re in a lunchroom in high school and it’s like, you got some white friends,” he says. “But the truth is, when you sit down and eat, you see that there’s a group of people that’s all black on one side and it’s all white on the other.” 

The 28-year-old creative says the concept of the video was to subvert the dynamics and literal places where black and white people think they belong. “It’s a flip on Middle America and Middle America’s perspective on blackness, and then a black perspective of blackness.” 

In addition to breaking down the racial commentary in the “Middle Child” video, Mez also spoke with Complex about how J. Cole tapped him to direct his first video, what it’s like to work with Kanye West and Dr. Dre, and what to expect from his forthcoming, still-untitled debut album.

Can you tell me the story of how you got involved with J. Cole for this project?
Yeah, I’ve known him for seven years now or something like that. I met him when his first album was out and he was working on his second album. Omen, who signed with Dreamville, played him my music. Ironically, he played Cole my music in the same room that I ended up doing Compton with Dr. Dre, years later. It’s really weird how that works. It’s so weird. Energy is weird like that, you know what I’m saying? But it’s real. I believe in these forces, these unseen forces that bring things together. It’s crazy. There are too many “coincidences,” with the quotation marks.

With the quotation marks, I love that. I’m such a coincidence girl. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the synchronicity concept? J. Cole actually knows what synchronicity is. I don’t know if he’s called it by its name, but it’s just the idea of specific coincidences happening, and it being too much to explain away.
Yeah, I just think there are these moments in our life, where… You know how DNA has these two strands, and they cross at certain points? I feel like there’s these times in our life where things just cross, and you feel it, and you sense it, and you’re like, “Man, this is something that’s beyond me, that’s beyond people, and beyond the world.”

Me writing that album in the same room that Omen played Cole my music in, and this is five years later, you know what I’m saying? At the time that Omen played Cole my music, No I.D. ran that studio. And then years later, Dre bought it, because Dre worked there first. Then I.D. took it over, and Dre turned around and bought it. So now Dre owns Record One, we ended up doing the album together there. That’s how I met him.