J. Cole hasn’t been holding back any punches with his newest audio series, “Inevitable,” alongside his long-time manager and business partner, Ibrahim Hamad. In their latest episode, Hamad shared a never-before-told story about JAY-Z suggesting to Drake that he give Cole a hit record back in 2011.
J. Cole and Drake both started their professional musical journeys around the same time, and it was always a tense relationship between them in the eyes of the media. Neither budding rap star could do an interview without hearing the other’s name. While neither one of them publicly took a noticeable jab at the other, the spirit of competition was alive and well around their first commercial releases. Nonetheless, the “Jodeci Freestyle” collaborators were active supporters of each other, trading tracks and appearances at various shows to show their bond.
While recounting the story, according to Complex, J. Cole’s manager explained, “We're having a conversation. Me, Cole, Drake, Future [the Prince]. I don’t know who else, but there were a couple more people. So then Jay walks in and he sees all of us together. He goes, 'Yo!' and he looks at Drake and he says, 'Yo, give the boy one.’”
Later in the story he shares how the interaction rubbed the North Carolina-bred emcee the wrong way, and he challenged JAY-Z on his ask, citing his first album Reasonable Doubt not having any major hits as the reason for his issue with the request. As of late, there has not been much public communication between J. Cole and JAY-Z. Popular media personalities like Joe Budden have been adamant about wanting to know more about the state of their relationship now that Cole is no longer signed to the Roc Nation Founder.
J. Cole secured his first Billboard No. 1 track alongside Drake on their collaboration For All The Dogs standout, “First Person Shooter.” The song would seemingly mark the tipping point in the battle between the “Big 3,” after Kendrick Lamar used Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” to send shots at Drizzy and Cole, leading to the biggest battle Hip Hop has seen in recent years.
Fans can catch J. Cole live in concert for one night only at the 2014 Forest Hills Drive 10th anniversary show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 16.