It should not be anything special that J. Cole has gone platinum with no features. Becoming a talking point over the last few years, the fact that an artist may need features from others to succeed is outlandish. Sure, gaining further recognition and exposure from another artist's fanbase can help you out in the long run but why is it so common for albums these days to be filled with guest spots? The novelty of a different voice can oftentimes throw the listener off. When it comes to Lupe Fiasco, he's good doing things on his own from now on. In other words, he's announced that is no longer doing any feature spots for artists.
Ironically, perhaps the most popular song that Lupe has been on is a feature on Kanye West's "Touch The Sky." After that, he gained solo success with his Food & Liquor and The Cool albums. During a debate on who the greatest rapper of all time is on Twitter, Lupe responded to a fan who thought the rapper was ruining his chances of collaborating with Nas. The Chicagoan made a bold statement, claiming he was done doing features for anybody, writing, "Lol hear me & hear me good you will never hear me on a track with another rapper ever again. Lol I don’t like doing features and I’ve done all the features I wanted to do it’s done, it’s done, it’s done." Lupe even revealed that he had no interest in doing the "Touch the Sky" verse until one of his business partners talked him into it.
Looks like Lupe is a one-man band from now on. In case anybody was wondering, he considers Jay-Z at the top of the GOAT conversation.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1013865519760494592
https://twitter.com/_/status/1013866946805354496
https://twitter.com/_/status/1013868267331604485
