J. Cole enjoys uplifting people in his music and in real life, often taking time out of his busy schedule to interact with people who have been dealt a bad hand in this game of life. Three years ago, he took a trip to one of San Francisco’s most famous prisons and one of the inmates is shining a light on how life-changing his visit was.

“We got the opportunity to spend the day at San Quentin State Prison talking and meeting inmates who will never see the outside again,” wrote Cole’s manager, Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad at the time. It turns out that Cole did more than just talk — he actually spit some bars for about forty inmates facing life in prison.

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Replying to a post asking about experiences seeing big artists perform in small rooms, former incarcerated lifer Adnan Khan spoke about his experience hearing the rapper spit bars during his visit to San Quentin.

According to the formerly incarcerated man, Cole’s visit didn’t include a performance of sorts. However, he did sit down in a circle before spitting some bars without instrumental backing.

According to Khan, Cole’s visit was deep. “He knew how fucked up the system is & wanted to learn more from us living in the fire-to use his platform to educate fans & bring actual change,” he writes.

Take a look at some pictures below.