Rapping is a competitive sport. Every artist worth their salt is hell-bent on proving why they’re the best rapper alive by releasing the best album or having the best verse on a given song—anything to prove that they’re in the upper echelon. For J. Cole in 2013, he was still cutting his teeth in the industry alongside the other two parts of the infamous Big 3. He had his fair share of hits, but he wasn’t quite Drake. There wasn’t an obvious good kid, m.A.A.d city in his discography.
So what did Cole do to get that extra bit of credibility? He went after one of the real legends in hip-hop. He moved the release date of his sophomore album, Born Sinner, to match Kanye West’s Yeezus. In an interview with Billboard, J. Cole talked about how learning Ye’s date only made him want to move up accordingly.
“Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I made one phone call to somebody that would know, just to make sure first. As soon as I got it confirmed, I was like, ‘Yo…’ The idea hit me instantly: ‘You got to go to that date,’” the North Carolina rapper said.
Additionally, he thought that if he stuck to his original release date, people would forget him in comparison to Ye’s blockbuster album.
J. Cole Tried to compete With Kanye West in 2013 with ‘Born Sinner’ vs ‘Yeezus’
“I’m not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It’d be like, ‘Oh, and J. Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature, so it was instant. It wasn’t even a thought,” Cole continued. “It’s a definite statement about how I feel about my album, which is confident.”
Still, J. Cole insisted that it wasn’t a matter of arrogance. As excited as he was to battle for sales and quality, he remained humble and gave Kanye West his flowers. He just wanted to put his record in the same conversations, rather than be forgotten by history.
“At the same time, let’s not forget this is Kanye West. He bets 100, 1,000, whatever the perfect is. His track record is flawless. I’m only expecting an incredible album from him,” J. Cole said of Yeezus. “But I know what I have.”
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