Ibrahim ‘Ib’ Hamad, J. Cole’s manager and president of the North Carolina star’s Dreamville imprint, spoke recently with Billboard about the success of 4 Your Eyez Only, shared details behind the development of the record.
Hamad also addressed the sonic similarities of J. Cole’s “Déjà Vu” (his first Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 debut) and Bryson Tiller’s “Exchange” mega-hit single. The beat for the Cole track, produced by Boi-1da and Vinylz, led to accusations of audio plagiarism the night of its release.
“I wouldn’t say there was any hesitation because I felt like it’s just two totally different songs,” said Hamad. “We had already made ‘Deja Vu,’ like that song was literally made for his last album [2014 Forest Hills Drive] and we just knew it would fit better because of the story he wanted to tell on the album.”
The songs used a similar sample and led to a Twitter war between several beatmakers, but Hamad dismissed the issue while stating that both songs will stand the test of time in their own respective lanes.
Fans might remember that Cole led the campaign for his fourth studio album with the songs “False Prophets” and “Everybody Dies,” both of which charted on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. Hamad explained why the songs were cut from the project despite being featured in a documentary about the album.
“We really wanted ‘False Prophets’ and ‘Everybody Dies’ on the album and it was like we still wanted people to hear it but we didn’t want to put the music out because we knew it wasn’t a real representation of the album. We just thought in the documentary, it would be a cool extra thing but then the documentary just took off and grew a life of its own. It was great to see,” said Hamad.
Earlier this week DX reported that all 10 of the tracks on 4 Your Eyez Only hit the Hot 100 charts.
Check out Billboard’s entire interview here.
So…….. where’s The explanation. I tillers version better anyway. If cole is suppose to be such a creative person, why didn’t he just come up with another track, instead using the same beat that was used on a niggas joint that months before his own?
Cole’s song was recorded way before Tiller’s so you wack
But the other guy’s was released way before Cole’s. And Cole, knowing the success of the other track, still released it because that’s the sound the ppl like apparently. Not saying anyone bit anyone else, however after you go in on ppl not doing their own thing, and you release a song super similar to someone else, you can’t talk anymore.
Go back to Africa, Black people
Both songs are good and it’s a simple case. Cole has recorded the song months before Tiller released his joint. Though IMO Cole should produce his own shit.
It’s like Tupac and Nas all over again. Both their songs (All Eyez On Me, Street Dreams) had the Linda Crawford sample. Pac put out his song first, then Nas put out his a few months later. Then Pac called him out for it.
The Mechaniks stole the beat. Boi-1da let One of them hear the beat over Skype and a few weeks later it was reproduced by the thief. Still two dope songs.
Boi-1da didnt do anything. He barely touched the beat. VInylz and Teck used to be homies. See what happens when we play pass the message? Every random person on the internet thinks they have inside info. Shame the drum work and overall quality of Tiller’s is way better.