The song by J. Cole you’re currently most likely to hear coming out of a car window is called “Wet Dreamz.” It’s about him losing his virginity, certainly the highest-profile hip-hop song on that delicate subject.

Mr. Cole tackles it with gusto and a not insignificant amount of awkward detail, rapping about teaching himself to put on a condom, studying pornography to learn technique and agonizing over whether he’ll be up to the task. His flow is raspy and conversational, not swaggering at all, and the song is slow, slightly sleepy soul. When you hear it on Hot 97, in between the digital vocal cascades of Fetty Wap, the self-satisfied Drake loosies and the meanspirited Chris Brown choruses, it sounds disruptive. It’s a deviation from mainstream hip-hop’s norm, a rejection of its surroundings.

Two decades ago, an artist like that would have happily resigned himself to the underground, hardened his integrity and obscurity into weapons, and rained judgment and insult upon those at the center.

And yet the album that song comes from, “2014 Forest Hills Drive” (Roc Nation/Columbia), Mr. Cole’s third, was last year’s top-selling rap album. To date it’s sold about 950,000 copies, his first platinum album after two gold ones. Next month, Mr. Cole will perform at Madison Square Garden, a show that sold out on the first day of ticket sales.