The RIAA has announced that J. Cole’s “Middle Child” single has officially gone diamond. The song was released on January 23, 2019, through Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records, as the first single from Dreamville’s 2019 compilation album, Revenge of the Dreamers III.
The song was written by J. Cole, T-Minus, Allan Felder, & Norman Harris, and produced by the former two. The song includes an exclusive multi-track sample of the horns section from “Wake Up to Me” by ’70s Philadelphia trio First Choice, which was found and cleared through music licensing site Tracklib.
On the song, J. Cole explores “his place between the old and new generations of hip hop, making him the ‘middle child’ of rap.”
We are not 🎶 counting you out 🎶 @JColeNC. Congratulations on your first RIAA Diamond 💎 certification for #MiddleChild @dreamville @rocnation pic.twitter.com/Hx9EskNbHN
— RIAA (@RIAA) July 25, 2024
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.”
