J. Cole is a master of the bait-and-switch. You think you're listening to a club banger, and suddenly he's lecturing you on the nuances of systematic oppression or the fragility of his own ego. It's a trick he pulled off perfectly on "2014 Forest Hills Drive," but nowhere is the contrast more jarring than on "G.O.M.D."
If you’ve ever screamed the chorus at a concert, you know the energy. It’s loud. It’s abrasive. It feels like a middle finger to the world. But if you actually sit down and read the GOMD J Cole lyrics, the "Get Off My Dick" energy is just a protective shell for a song that’s deeply insecure, nostalgic, and—strangely enough—about a girl.
The Acronym and the Anger
Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way first. GOMD stands for "Get Off My Dick." Simple.
But why the hostility? By the time Cole was recording this track in 2014, he was hitting a wall with the "Hollywood Cole" persona. The industry wanted a certain type of rapper. They wanted the hits, the bling, and the mindless club tracks. You can hear the frustration in the opening bars. He's putting his city on the map, but he feels like everyone is trying to claim a piece of him or dictate his next move.
He uses that aggressive hook as a shield. It's a way to tell the critics, the hangers-on, and the industry vultures to back off.
Breaking Down the Sample
Cole produced this himself. He's a nerd for a good sample, and here he used a snippet of "Berta, Berta," which is a traditional African-American work song (often associated with prison chain gangs).
- Source: The version he used is famously attributed to Branford Marsalis from the 1991 album I Heard You Twice the First Time.
- Vibe: It adds this ancestral, heavy weight to the track.
- Contrast: He pairs this soulful, historical chant with a dirty, distorted bassline and a Lil Jon "Get Low" interpolation.
It’s high-brow and low-brow colliding at 100 mph.
The Pivot to "Jermaine"
The most interesting part of the GOMD J Cole lyrics happens mid-song. The beat shifts. The bravado cracks.
"I wanna go back to Jermaine, and I won't tell nobody."
This line is the heartbeat of the entire 2014 Forest Hills Drive album. He's tired of the rapper caricature. He misses the guy who lived in Fayetteville, the guy who wasn't worried about "temporary dough."
Honestly, it’s a bit of a mid-life crisis caught on tape, except he was only in his late 20s. He’s questioning whether the fame was even worth it. He literally asks God if he's changed. Most rappers spend their whole careers trying to prove they haven't changed; Cole is the only one who seems genuinely terrified that he might have.
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The Relationship Arc
Then the song takes a weird turn. Suddenly, he’s talking about foot massages and "blowing bubbles in the bathtub."
Wait, what?
He moves from "get off my dick" to a vulnerable story about a long-term relationship. He talks about the "break up" and the "make up." He references Amerie's "1 Thing." He’s basically saying that in a world of fake people and industry pressure, the only thing that’s real is the love he has at home.
He laments that "niggas don't sing about it no more." It’s his way of saying that rap has become too tough, too cold. He wants to bring back the "thug skip" parts—the stuff people usually ignore because it isn't "hard" enough.
The Video: A Period Piece with a Message
You can't talk about these lyrics without mentioning the music video directed by Lawrence Lamont. It’s a period piece. Cole plays a house slave on a plantation.
It was a risky move. People were confused. Why use a "Get Off My Dick" song to talk about slavery?
Cole later explained that the video was about unity. In the video, his character (the house slave) is seen as a bit of a "sell-out" by the field slaves. But he eventually uses his position to steal the keys, arm everyone, and lead a rebellion.
It mirrors his position in the rap game. He’s the guy on the "inside"—the famous guy, the "house" guy—but he’s trying to use that power to bring everyone else up. He’s telling the community to stop fighting each other (dark skin vs. light skin, successful vs. struggling) and focus on the real enemy.
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Why It Still Hits in 2026
Even over a decade later, "G.O.M.D." doesn't sound dated.
Maybe it’s because the internal struggle Cole describes is universal. We all have that "Hollywood" version of ourselves we show the world, and the "Jermaine" version we keep tucked away.
Key Takeaways for Your Playlist:
- Don't take the hook literally. It's a defensive mechanism, not the thesis.
- Listen for the transition. The second half of the song is where the real substance lives.
- Watch the video again. It adds a layer of social commentary that the lyrics alone only hint at.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the Cole lore, your next step is to re-listen to the track "Love Yourz" right after "G.O.M.D." It's the logical conclusion to the argument he's starting here—that no matter how much people are "on your dick," the only thing that matters is loving what you've already got.