When you’re signed to Roc Nation, Jay-Z may only be a phone call away, but J. Cole is not ready to make that call just yet. The Roc Nation rapper is still looking for the perfect record for his boss to jump on.

While they’ve worked together on “A Star Is Born” from Jay’s Blueprint 3 album, Cole has yet to find the right collaboration for his debut. “I haven’t found the song that we wanna do yet, but there was one that almost happened, that he was about to write to,” he tells staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud. “I didn’t even write to it. I just gave him the beat like, ‘Yo, I think you would sound good on this.’ I’m glad nothing really happened because a few months later I realized that’s not the one.”

There have been other contenders, including one on his newest mixtape Friday Night Lights. “There was this one record we were gonna do. Even the song ‘Enchanted’ off the mixtape, that’s a song that when I first did it, I heard Jay-Z. I’m thinkin’ like, ‘Man, is this gonna be the song?'” he says. “But I’m really particular and picky, just by the way I move and handle my announcements and everything. I’m really calculated.”

The North Carolina native hopes that by the time his album drops in the spring, he will find that record. “I’m definitely hoping. I plan on it. Every new song I do for the album is getting better and better, so hopefully I’ll do the one for me and Jay soon.”

He has, however, played the majority of the eagerly-awaited project for his boss. “I haven’t sat down and played him it in its entirety, front to back, ’cause I don’t even know what that is yet. But I played him pretty much all the songs that are on the album at some point, either when I first did ’em or like four or five in a batch. But yeah, Jay has heard all the music.”

J. Cole’s as-yet-untitled debut is due in the spring featuring production from No I.D., Danjahandz, and Brian Kidd.