J. Cole penned a highly emotional personal essay this week for Dereck Jeter’s publication The Players Tribune called “The Audacity.” At one point, the revered MC admitted he never read the contract when signing with JAY-Z’s label Roc Nation on February 24, 2009, a date he says he’ll always remember because it’s the day before Dreamville Records president Ibrahim Hamad’s birthday.
“That day, we both took an elevator way up to the fancy office of a high-end entertainment law firm housed in a New York city high-rise,” he recalled. “Far from what I would have imagined, the actual moment of signing the contract was relatively unremarkable. Ib and I sat in a small, quiet conference room across from an associate of my fancy new lawyer. The mountain of papers in front of him included multiple copies of a record deal that I never actually read.
“The associate pointed at the area of each page that needed my signature, and when all the copies were signed, Ib and I probably dapped each other up and said some shit like, “Aight my dawg. Let’s get it.” With empty pockets, we hopped in the dented black Honda Civic and slid down to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to celebrate at a bar with some of our homeboys.”
Cole described the feeling as “surreal” and confessed he always thought of Jay as “a mythical figure.”
“Friends would congratulate me and follow it up with a ‘Nigga!!! How you feeling?!!'” he continued. “I imagine that the thought of one of their homies getting a deal with somebody we all idolized had to be mind blowing. But the truth was that the enormous level of excitement I felt was somehow subdued by the amount of focus I knew I had to have for my ultimate mission.
“I came to New York 6 years earlier on a partial scholarship with one ridiculous goal in mind: to one day sit in the same seat that Jay and a only a handful of other rappers previously sat. Signing to one of my biggest inspirations was an unexpected blessing, but even on that beautiful night of celebration I understood it was just one giant-step towards something much more far fetched.”
Fast-forward to 2020 and Cole is among the upper echelon of Hip Hop artists and has built his own rap empire with his good friend Hamad by his side.
Fans are eager to get their hands on Cole’s next solo effort, which could emerge sooner than expected. Earlier this month, Hamad dashed any hope for an imminent Cole album when he tweeted, “Just to clarify, There is no Cole album coming out soon and There is no Cole interview coming up,” but that slightly changed on Tuesday (July 21) when Cole announced the first two singles from The Fall Out, the follow-up to 2018’s KOD, were right around the corner.
According to a tweet from the married father of two, the two singles are called “The Climb Back” and “Lion King On Ice,” which are expected to arrive at 10 p.m. EST on Wednesday (July 22). In terms of a release date for the album, well, no luck there.
“The Climb Back – produced by me,” he wrote. “Lion King on Ice – produced by J. Cole, T-Minus, and Jetson. First 2 songs from The Fall Off. Dropping tomorrow night 10pm. No date for the album yet, taking my time, still finishing.”
Check out the tweet below.
Can’t wait. King Cole
Blah blah blah blah.
Millionaire from posing as woke genius messiah.
Then biggest USA movement in history n he too selfish to tweet even a petition for BLM.
Exposed as fake or shook AF.
Now to try n make ppl relate, he says he has kids and stuff.
Predictable
Why would he promote blm???? Unless its to promote lgbt why would any black man promote it
Why would anybody promote BLM when the co-founders admitted themselves that they are TRAINED MARXISTS aka trained communists and when BLM’s goal of abolishing/defunding police is stupid and would lead to shootings of black people increasing 500% compared to now.
Also the whole premise of BLM that police shoots unarmed black people all the time and much more than white people is a LIE.
White people are more likely to be shot by police than blacks despite blacks committing about 50% of the violent crimes in USA.
There were just 9 unarmed black dudes shot by police in 2019 and out of these almost all attacked police without a gun either with car, taser or their hands or slammed a female police officer to the ground.
One black dude threatened to shoot all the police around his house and claimed to have lots of guns and had a history of shootouts with police and police shot him and then realized he had no guns and had just lied.
This movement is not bigger than the Civil Rights Movement of the past. You’re just marching to take down confederate symbols that don’t mean anything.
Three dollar bill rapper….
I admit I couldnt name a J Cole track or tell if its him on a verse. Only a handful of artists that dropped after 2000 that i bump.
I feel what you say. I think is dope especially compared to todays standard (lets just say everything after mid 2000s mainstream). But he doesn’t really have memorable verses, lines for me either. When you say Nas, I can think of his Live at the BBQ verse, I gave you power, rewind, illmatic etc. Other legendary stuff AZ, Wu Tang, Canibus, Big Pun, G Rap symphony. I mean there are tons of lists. J Cole doesn’t make wack music, but nothing memorable like these classic names. Personally I think he is a little bit overrated. He is talented but nothing more.
He doesn’t have memorable lines to you, because you stopped listening to all rap after 2000’s. Believe it or not, even Drake, migos, or any other current rapper has memorable lines… To their audiences. Just as you can name lines from artist that you grew up with, so can all these kids that are growing up with current rappers. And no, I’m not a new kid, I’m from 89, listening to rap since mid 90’s, to even today.
You’re saying that, but I know my older guys were saying that about Nas, Pac, and Biggie when I was coming up in the 90s. In 20 years, some kid today who isn’t on the mumble rap or whatever the equivalent is will be sampling and quoting him because the kid is nice on the mike and has made some dope music.
To you and everybody else who responded. I do not deny he is nice on the mic. Sure he is one of the best in his generation. But he lacks classic projects. What album did he make that is timeless and a real classic? I am in tune to what’s happening in the game. Kendrick Lamar for example is from the same era. And even though he is not in my top 10 like lots of people hype him up, I acknowledge that he has classics. Gkmc and to pimp a butterfly are classics. And even damn. although for me personally it wasn’t as good as the other 2. And this is coming from somebody who isn’t even heavily fxcking with Kendrick’s music. Acknowledgments is not the problem for me. You got to have classics in your catalogue. J Cole is slightly below that.
I don’t really do the classics thing. People like it and will be bumping it 20 years from now is my point. That’s what I’m telling you. People were like Ready to Die and Illmatic weren’t so called classics from the previous generations because they didn’t like the direction hip hop went in the 90s from its 80s roots. However, in retrospect, it’s lauded, quoted, and sampled by today’s artists and by many hip hop fans. I can’t spit you a line from either of Kendrick’s or J. Cole’s projects because my time has passed for memorizing songs and shit, but I know when I hear them, they’re quality rappers, and like you said, it’s for their time, but people said that about those 90s legends too.
What does that say about you if you closed out hip-hop 20 years ago and it just got bigger?
I’m a self professed old Head, east coast purist. But, I love Cole!
I can’t wait for the singles and the album to drop. In the mean time, I’ll be frank about the situation. I’m not surprised Cole never read his contract. A lot of rappers never do. Many of them live to regret it afterward. In Cole’s case that fact in itself is probably an indictment of the difficult financial circumstances he found himself in at that time. We’ve heard about some of it in the music. The arrest for unpaid parking tickets for his momma’s beaten up Honda Civic that he’s referring to. The student loans he had to access to get through college. The kind and patient landlord in Queens who never kicked him out despite him being late on the rent several times. It also indicates his humble opinion on what the industry had to offer him despite the glamour commonly associated with it and his tunnel vision for the task that lay ahead. Looking back 11 years later, he’s one of the highest selling and most lyrical rappers of his generation. He’s built a loyal following through a signature sound with cross over appeal that he has personally produced from the ground up. It’s a feat very few of his peers can claim to have achieved. Aside from the above, he in the process of consolidating his musical legacy through his Dreamville Records imprint which has Ari Lennox, Cozz, Bas but to name a few on its roster. There still remains a lot of work to be done before he can achieve the coveted rap legend status all rappers would die for but its clear from what we’ve seen so far, he’s on his way there.
Every Cole album drop I hold my breath hoping he can make something as good as 2014. But, I’m starting to think he’s an average rapper that occasionally has some stand out moments. I like what 4YEO was trying to do, but it was so boring.
I m with you on that bra
4YEO is literally better than FHD. His feature run was flawless, and ROTD3 is an amazing album that made history. u smoking crack.
What’s good with this shade throwing ass headline
Black Thought and J Cole dropping new music in the same month! Perfect. However, Black Thought made it very clear on Thought vs Everybody that nobody better challenge his throne. Be careful out here Cole. Lol
I hope some of us get to experience that kind of accomplishment, must be surreal.