During a recent episode of his Inevitable audio series, J Cole and his manager Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad shared two of his unreleased collabs with Kendrick Lamar. They discussed how the collabs came about, and Cole also opened up about his initial reaction to the release of Kendrick's 2012 album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. According to him, the pressure was on once it dropped, as he felt as though Kendrick had "surpassed" him.
“He came to Fayetteville and we worked on that studio bus for two or three days,” Cole said of the collabs, which were recorded when Drake's "Club Paradise" tour featuring Kendrick came to his city. “Before, I had sent him joints, but this was the first time we actually got to lock in and work on sh*t. And that sh*t was so fun, dawg… It felt like when your cousin would come over to your house.”
J Cole Looks Back On Recording 2012 Kendrick Lamar Collabs
He went on to recall Kendrick playing some tracks from GKMC for him before its release. “When Kendrick’s album dropped, the journey got harder, the mountain got steeper. Because similar to when [So Far Gone] dropped, where it was like, ‘Oh sh*t, there’s another person out there that has the same ambitions as me,’ it happened like that with Kendrick," he explained.
“It was a feeling of surpassment," he added. "It was two indicators that told me. His first-week numbers were more than mine. The other thing was we had a show where we were both on the same lineup… and I went before him and he went after me.” This wasn't the first time Cole played his fans unreleased Kendrick Lamar collabs, however. Last month, he previewed two more, this time dating back to 2010.
