Following the successful release of his third solo album "2014 Forest Hills Drive" earlier this week, J. Cole paid a visit to "The Late Show with David Letterman" as a musical guest on Wednesday night.

Instead of being driven by album promotion and playing a track off his just-released record, the North Carolina-native lyricist took time to pay tribute to victims of police brutality, Ferguson, Missouri's Michael Brown and Staten Island's Eric Garner, with a powerful live performance of "Be Free."

While clad in all black and keeping his eyes closed, J. Cole debuted his new lines, in addition to the original lyrics off the emotional song, which was released in August.

"Can you tell me why / Every time I step inside I see my people die?" he rapped. "No disrespect, in terms of change, I haven't seen any / Maybe he had good intentions but was stifled by the system and was sad to learn he actually couldn't bring any / That's what I get for thinkin' / This world is fair, they let a brother steer the ship and never told him that the s--t was sinkin'."

Meanwhile, "2014 Forest Hills Drive" is expected to sell between 240,000 and 270,000 copies in its first week, Hip Hop Early reports. This is pretty low, due to the fact that the "Born Sinner" rapper announced his 13-track project just three weeks ago and did not drop any initial singles ahead.

However, Cole clearly does not care about the numbers, as he tweeted:

Check out J. Cole's live performance of "Be Free" on "The Late Show with David Letterman" below:

Related