With his debut Cole World: The Sideline Story zooming into stores tomorrow (Sep. 27th), J. Cole recently chopped it up with Power 98.3’s Yaya Martinez to explain what took so long. During the interview, the Roc Nation rapper explains that he’s always been ready to release the LP but that politics kept him from dropping the album.
“I always been ready to go. At all points. Even if I didn’t have a release date right now, if the album wasn’t coming out, I’d be ready. At all points during this process, I was ready,” he said. ”It’s just a matter of expectations. When you have the expectations of a whole label and how they look at you and perceive you and what they want your success level to be, then you’re going to have a lot of opinions on singles or whatever.”
He referenced his most recent single “Can’t Get Enough” 
featuring Trey Songz, which he originally wanted to release as a single. Cole explains that in response to not being able to pick his song of choice for a single, he instead released Friday Night Lights .
“‘Can’t Get Enough’ is out of here. As soon as ‘Work Out’ finishes what it’s going to do on radio, which it looks like it’s going to go, ‘Can’t Get Enough’ is next. I had ‘Can’t Get Enough’ last year, a year ago from now or whatever. But, it’s just how the cookie crumbles. I don’t have that type of power to put out the album. So my response to ‘Can’t Get Enough’ not being a single was Friday Night Lights, which had some songs that were originally going to be on the album.”
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Ummmmmm. Ok
J.Cole, will you please pinch my nipples and smack my ass with a horse whip? I want that daddy dick
I sure he’s learning valuable lessons and whatnot among the tutelage of Jay-Z but at the same time I think Roc Nation will inevitably tarnish his career.
Man he need to learn to dodge interview questions. Damn thats way too much info. Nobody needs to know this shit. You just opened up opinions about your label situation left and right. You gotta learn.
More excuses for having no buzz.
2Face and Farewell should’ve been on the album instead of Cole World and maybe even Sideline Story. If Lights Please got a spot on the album Farewell at least deserved a fucking bonus track spot. AND WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT JOINT TEMPTATIONS WITH KENDRICK LAMAR? I gotta say, I wasn’t impressed. It was a solid album, but Cole can do sooooo much better…
“no Buzz”
stupid ,. this man will do 250k – 300k and top off at about 650k which is good for a Rookie,. hell drake barely hit a million took him 2 months
i think it was 3 months
are you stupid? or just ignorant? you think he’s going to outsell big sean who did about 90k in his first week? and actually had a top 40 hit with my last? this guy will be lucky if he does 60k in the first week and tops off at 250-300k plus the album sucks
i agree that cole will not sell that well, but the album doesn’t suck and id say its more ignorant to say its worse than FF, which i liked but its all pop and surface level material
@Ashere1985 I agree with u 100% Cole will be very lucky too hit 500
no buzz? dude was trending on twitter! *sarcasm
Not impressed with his lead singles. I know you need hits for the radio to get the album to sell but if those are any indication of what the album will sound like, I’ll stick with his mixtapes.
stickin to his mixtapes does nt make u a fan at all. from tracks i heard cole world is gonna be a very solid album. cant wait to get mine tomorrow
good album but they used songs that were on the mixtapes so they might as well used more. they aren’t many surprises on the album. so many dope joints but i wanted all new material.
Coleee!!!! Tommoroww!!
Yall Niggas sound dumb as fuck a good album aint about sales dick heads a raper can have an incrediable album and still not sell. Cole is is crazy by the way maybe not a classic but I kno 4 a fact that his 2nd will be
Yall Niggas sound dumb as fuck a good album aint about sales dick heads a raper can have an incrediable album and still not sell. Cold world is is is crazy by the way maybe not a classic but I kno 4 a fact that his 2nd will be
Dudes just boring, he’s not bad in the least bit but nothing he’s ever done has made me go crazy over it, just a bland MC, I dont mind hearing him on a mixtape here or there but I dont think I could stay awake long enough to sit through a solo album
That’s cause you can’t relate to his subject matter if your chilling on your moms couch all day. Gets some ambition
J Cole is boring
cupcake that nigga is eatin’ in the middle of the interview lol. looks tasty…awready.
Imagine if Friday Night Lights was his debut, & Cole World: Sideline Story was the follow up? Haha
relax haters its his first album and its insane for a first album. who cares about how much he sells look at the quality. cause of fans like most yu ppl that hip hop is dying- no one lookin at talent. hiphop fans hate just because an artist is getting big.start sppreciating the music. if yu dnt like cole why click on an article about him, cause yu no hes talented but yu just wana hate to get the attention yu never got. STOP KILLIN HIPHOP
how is it crazy for a first album!? most artists first album is their best or top 2 cuz its your life story up to that point, the msg youve been trying to get out since the beginning. only rappers that topped their first album later on are Kanye(MDBTF), Jigga(BP), and Common(Be)
jg you are the dumbest person ever. listen to his three mixtapes
jg is right first albums used to be more solid efforts, thats all he’s saying. i dont see how that makes him dumb??
See this article should tell any hot new artist not to sign to these commercial labels. You don’t have no control over your own music! Which makes no since at all! His label fell to capitalize on his buzz. His album should of dropped late last year. Now look a year later and his buzz is low. None of his singles are hitting hard on the charts. His first single “work out” peaked at 79! billboard top 100 IN 3 WEEKS. And who is to blame? Well I blame Roc nation and his management for this.
Co-sign.
Preach! Worst part is you can tell from the interview that he knows he got screwed over.
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his album is a 4 not a 5 not a 3 but a 4. beats were mostly wack and didn’t compliment his raw rapping style next time cole drop some nice soulful beats like on friday night lights and you will have a classic believe me
FLOP
this is the best album of 2011! real hip hop.
whooooaa now. u must not’ve hrd saigon’s “greatest story never told”. best shit this year FUCKwhat’chall said.
Saigon is TOO UNDERRATED.Hes Nice
Wow. So songs on Friday Night Lights were supposed to be on the album… that makes so much sense. I swear FNL would’ve been a better album. I’m not hating, though. I still fxcks with The Sideline Story.
Decent album. People just hype stuff up a little to much. With that being said the mixtapes were better. How the fuck that happened? I dont know but thats how it went down.
whoooooaa now. u must haven’t hrd Saigon’s “Greatest Story Never Told”. Best shit out this year so far. FUCKwhat’choo said
Charity starts at home>The sideline story
What’s Yaya talking about? Phoenix, AZ has no fans for J-Cole? Fuck that… I was at the Venue in Scottsdale last Wednesday and J-Cole was the headliner. That shit sold out 3K+… People were chanting his shit!
Just goes to show how much power the label has over albums. But how they figured ‘Mr Nice Watch’ is better than ‘Farewell’ or ‘Enchanted’ is beyond me. Another case of label C.R.E.A.Ming as i like to call it.