What's special about J. Cole's latest album KOD is that the production was handled solely by Cole himself. The exception to that fact is for the track "Kevin's Heart" where Cole called on T-Minus and Mark Pelli. The song is probably one of the most popular beats off the tape and because of that T-Minus chopped it up with DJ Booth to explain how it all came together.
"I’ve been sending J. Cole music over the past year or so," he said. "It kinda just happened through the texting game; it's more of a direct way to get the music to the artists. I was just talking with him about working, sending him beats and he just so happened to go on vacation for about two to three weeks."
T explained how he had no idea Cole was on vacation and kept sending him tracks anyway. Luckily, Cole was using his vacation time to also work on his album and T sent him a track at the perfect time. Cole listened to it, loved it and said it would be on his album. "I had no clue that he was working on KOD. It just worked out perfectly," he added. "I made the beat sometime back in October of 2017. I was in the studio with another co-writer, co-producer named Mark Pelli. Dope guitarist, he works with the band MAGIC! as well. He started playing the guitar and he came up with this really cool loop and he kept playing it. I mean, it was almost instant. He didn’t even have to think about it."
After adding a drum bass, foundation and other signature sounds, T said the beat came together in about an hour and a half. "What I like to do is put a lot of effects on my sounds and make them kinda warped," he added. "It’s a signature style of mine. What a lot of people know me for is using lead synths in my tracks, so it just felt right to throw that in there and add some extra flavor and extra texture to the track."
