J. Cole Explains "Cole World: The Sideline Story" Title, Reveals Producers

J. Cole recently revealed his album title for his debut Cole World: The Sideline Story, dropping on September 27^th. Speaking with Rap-Up.com, the Roc Nation rapper explained that he didn’t always want to call his album as such, but that the fans helped push him in that direction.

“I used to be like, Cole World, yeah I like it, but it’s more like a mixtape title. The fact that everybody else was telling me, ‘Yeah, that should be the album title!’ I was kind of getting defensive like, nah man. Plus, I was juggling like five other album titles,” he said. “But I actually wanted to do Cole World for the second album title, but by the time people started suggesting it, it went all the way out the window. So when I came up with an album title that I actually liked, it was The Sideline Story, like I loved it because it fit the story so perfect, what I wanted to say, the things I was feeling, things I was saying or whatever. But it felt incomplete.”

The album, which features production from No I.D., Danjahandz and Brian Kidd as well as guest appearances from Trey Songz (he’s still waiting on a Jay-Z verse), will be the first in a series.

“I was like, let’s make it a series. Let’s make Cole World the Star Wars or whatever the titles are under Star Wars. ‘Empire Strikes Back’ or whatever, ‘Return of the Jedi,’ I don’t know what the titles are. But let’s do that. Cole World is something that my fans recognize and they love and I love it too, so let’s do that.”