During the days when South by Southwest was a little less Hip Hop-centric, J. Cole spent time canvassing Austin pushing $1 copies of his The Come Up mixtape. The strategy may have earned the Roc Nation star some additional buzz, but Cole says he learned a valuable lesson about reaching the largest number of fans possible with his mixtapes.

“That weekend we only got out 700 copies and even that was a task,” Cole said during an appearance in Austin this week. “Fast forward to my next mixtape, and I had it figured out—I cut straight to the case and went via the Internet.”

The success that followed The Come Up, The Warm Up and now Friday Night Lights , put J. Cole in a place where he had an established group of core fans as well as fringe listeners who were drawn in by his buzz. It’s a situation similar to Lil B and his use of the Internet to gain more exposure. The comparisons were apparently not lost on those in attendance who asked J. Cole his initial impressions of “The Based God.”

“Let’s say you think he can’t rap—you see what I did there?” Cole explained. “If that’s true, there’s something genius about what’s being done where he has all this attention. Talent doesn’t matter if you have vision and marketing and buzz.”