J. Cole has said that his album 2014 Forest Hills Drive was a “championship” level experience, despite it losing out at the Grammys.
The comments were made during an extensive interview with Bob Myers, GM of the Golden State Warriors, where Cole compared his triple-platinum 2014 project to the feeling of winning an NBA championship.
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“Had I won it early on, I feel like it would have validated all of those feelings I had for it,” said Cole, whose sole Grammys win came in 2020 for Best Rap Song (“A Lot”). “Maybe it would have felt like a championship at that point, I’m not sure. The fact that it didn’t happen, and that it didn’t happen, and that it didn’t happen, it allowed me to reflect.”
He continued: “After more time with sitting with myself, it becomes clear that, ‘Oh, wait a minute, those things weren’t for you.’ And then when it actually came, it was almost like, ‘I’m not in love with this thing anymore.’ So it couldn’t feel like a championship.
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“But I think this will answer your question a little better: that’s nowhere close to a championship for me, the Grammy, but there was an album that felt like a championship. The making of this album I got called Forest Hills Drive, and the releasing of it and the tour, that was a championship run in the way that how the Bulls look at The Last Dance.”
He concluded: “The fact that it didn’t win didn’t change my experience. That was what a championship felt like to me.”
2014 Forest Hills Drive was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Kendrick Lamar’s critically lauded effort To Pimp a Butterfly. Drake’sIf You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Nicki Minaj’sThe Pinkprint and Dr. Dre’sCompton were also in contention that year.
Nevertheless, 2014 Forest Hills Drive marked a new commercial peak for J. Cole and remains one of his most beloved albums. Following its surprise release in December 2014, it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with over 350,000 first-week sales — his highest tally up to that point.
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The album has never left the chart since then and currently sits at No. 50 after a staggering 432 weeks. Meanwhile, “No Role Modelz” made Spotify history last April after becoming the longest-running song on the U.S. Spotify chart.
2014 Forest Hills Drive achieved 3x platinum certification from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in May 2019 and kickstarted the “J. Cole Went Platinum With No Features” meme.
Looking ahead, the Dreamville boss is rumored to be working on his eagerly anticipated next album, The Fall Off. Cole first teased the project back in 2020, but only recently has begun to drop more hints about its arrival.
“And I still relate to that procrastination for tasks/ ‘Cause I need to finish this album/ But hell, how many more times/ Can I send this wooden pail down in that well/ And pull it back up with the hope that it’s filled?” he rapped on “Procrastination (Broke),” the loose song borrowing a YouTube producer’s beat he dropped in January.
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On “Adonis Interlude (The Montage),” his Dr. Dre-sampling contribution to Dreamville’s recently released Creed III soundtrack, he spit: “Just cop ‘The Fall Off’ and he’ll explain/ Is it the end of the chapter? Happily ever after?/ Bet this gon’ be the year that fulfill his reign, man.”
