As a Dreamville Records signee and good friend to North Carolina rapper J. Cole, Bas spoke on the few times he witnessed Jay Z in the studio with the Roc Nation emcee as he was working on his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story.
While speaking with Vlad TV, Bas revealed that it was always an event whenever the Brooklyn wordsmith would stop by the studio, which he says didn’t take place very frequently.
“I remember a few times when Cole was working on his first album he would stop by the studio. And just hear some records and whatnot. But not like on a day-to-day level. It was kind of an event when Hov popped up,” he said.
Bas, who says he first met Cole in either 2008 or 2009, commented on the rapper being one of the first to commend him on his skills as a lyricist. He later recalled learning from Cole as he traveled on tour with him.
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“I’ve known Cole for a minute, man,” Bas said. “Me and Cole’s relationship pre-dates my first rap. So, he was just the homie that when my shit was coming together, all my homies dug it. They loved it. It was still amateur as hell. But Cole—It was dope [cause] Cole was the first person to be like ‘Yo, you got your own style, which is the hardest thing to do. But I can’t wait to see where you’re gonna be in six months. Where you’re gonna be in a year. Or like two years from now.’ And he saw that early. And I think a big part of my development was going out on the road with him and just seeing—Okay, the crowd responds to this. Or just the moments you can build in a song just from seeing a lot of shows over and over. Like you really start to craft your songs a little differently.”
When asked about an agreement that J. Cole would put him on once he got on, Bas says there was never such an agreement between the two. According to Bas, Cole merely “believed in the music” he was making.
“Nah, cause Cole was on honestly before I started rapping,” he said. “Like he already had his deal and everything. And it was really just that I progressed at the right rate. Like Cole will tell you himself, he’s got better friends than me that’ve been rapping forever. You know what I mean? He’ll be the first to tell you he ain’t put me on really cause I was the homie. He just really—Like that’s a bonus, but he really just believed in the music I was making. And it’s hard to tell when you’re dealing with your friends. It’s hard to stay objective and be like ‘Man, am I just biased?’ I know that’s a natural thing, but I think a lot of it came from when Cole started playing my music for people he really respected. Whether it was No I.D. or Salaam Remi.”
Bas serves as one of the first artists to sign to the J. Cole-led Dreamville Records. Although the emcee has only been rapping for a handful of years, he has managed to release both Quarter Water Raised Me and Quarter Water Raised Me Vol. II. And in a matter of weeks Bas will be releasing a new project he says is “incredible” and will boast “a new sound.”
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