City moves street signs for J. Cole's former road out of reach

Moreen Blaisdell has not lived long in her home on Forest Hills Drive, but twice she has seen people attempting to steal the street sign on the edge of her corner lot, where Forest Hills turns into Mulberry Street.

“They were very brazen about it,” she says.

Call it one of the minor annoyances of living on a street known to fans of hip-hop worldwide thanks to its most famous former resident, J. Cole. Cole, a Grammy-nominated rapper, named his third studio album, “2014 Forest Hills Drive,” after his former address in this quiet city neighborhood. He also titled an HBO special, "J. Cole Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming."

Blaisdell says her house is owned by her daughter, who lived there for most of her career in the military. Blaisdell did not know who J. Cole was, but her daughter quickly filled her in and cautioned the street would receive its share of extra attention.

Blaisdell saw first-hand when she caught a group of would-be sign thieves at work around 8 or 9 p.m. - they were bending the street sign’s metal pole to get at the small green sign.

[PHOTOS: J. Cole before he was famous]

“Can I help you??” she asked loudly, startling the men who she said looked to be in their teens or early 20s.

They began to high-tail it in almost comic fashion, with one of the men chasing behind the car already in motion.

Fayetteville city officials have been well aware of the problem. In May, they said they had replaced 51 of the street signs since the release of Cole's "2014 Forest Hills Drive" album in December of 2014.

Now, there are apparently just two large signs with “Forest Hills Drive” written on them, and both are located 15 to 18 feet above the road, attached to utility poles. One sign is located across from Blaisdell’s house at a deep bend in the road.

The other sign is located on Cain Road, which intersects Forest Hills Drive at its northern end. Both signs point to where Forest Hills Drive starts.

The city installed the signs in August, says spokesman Nathan Walls.

“The city did that to reduce the potential for the signs being stolen,” he said. “To this point it has been successful.”

The costs to mount the new signs for labor, material and equipment was about $300, according to the city's Public Services Department.

[PHOTOS J. Cole in Fayetteville through the years]

The cost to replace the smaller street signs is $50. But of course, those are ongoing costs when the signs are stolen and replaced.

As for the new signs: If you happen to miss them and turn onto Forest Hills Drive, you will be out of luck trying to figure out what road you’re on. The small street signs are gone. All of the cross streets the road intersects have signs with just the name of the other road, not Forest Hills Drive.

Many residents on this stretch of road, which is just a half-mile long, have resigned themselves to the attention it has received. Cole, whose first name is Jermaine, is pictured on the album cover sitting on top of the home where he grew up.

His pose inspired several copycat fans, who risked life and limb to clamber up to the roof to take pictures. The property, which is currently vacant, is now fenced off, with a “No Trespassing” sign posted. That has not stopped admirers of Cole from scribbling messages of support and love on the mailbox, the wooden fence and even the No Trespassing sign itself.

Not all the attention Cole’s home received has been from supporters; it wouldn’t be hip-hop after all, without haters.

“J Cole … do you even care about the ville?” someone spray-painted across the front of the house in June, in graffiti that was removed within days.

Cole, who is 33 and lives in the Triangle, maintains strong ties to the city, particularly through his nonprofit Dreamville Foundation, which organizes and funds activities and programs for youth. Cole also slips into town, often unannounced, to visit kids involved in Find-A-Friend, a program for at-risk youth that is under the Fayetteville Urban Ministry. Dreamville was a major donor in the new 4,700-square-foot Manning Family Find-A-Friend Youth Enrichment Center that opened Saturday on Whitfield Street.

Dreamville purchased Cole’s childhood home at 2014 Forest Hills Drive in 2015. Initial plans called for converting it into a home for single mothers and their children; the status of those plans is unclear.

Cole came out of the New York rap scene, after impressing and signing on with Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, one of the biggest names in music. But Cole explicitly represents and claims Fayetteville - which he often calls Fayettenam - in his songs.

In an early mixtape from 2009, he rapped, “I'm finna put the ’Ville on the map/I'll be back, and I'm coming with a (record) deal and a plaque.”

Forest Hills Drive remains the most visible spot on Ville’s map to many of Cole’s local fans.

Blaisdell says the city’s reconfiguring the street signs has helped the situation, but people still come by to see Forest Hills Drive.

“They’ll come by and stop in the middle of the road,” she says.

Columnist Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.