J. Cole Audio Series Episode 8 Highlights - ‘Born Sinner Pt. 2’ (Part 3)

• They talked about Kanye announcing that he was gonna drop ‘Yeezus’ on June 18, scheduled a week before Cole was gonna drop ‘Born Sinner.’ Cole moved Born Sinner to the same date as Yeezus, because Cole didn’t want to be an after thought and wanted to compete: “If Imma play with the big dawgs, I gotta show up.” Cole told Jay and Jay liked the idea, saying that Ye did the same thing with 50.

• They discussed the process of mixing, mastering and finishing the album. Said it was a grind with not a lot of sleep, lots of days with no showering, just grimey. When Cole finished the album, he started crying. He was grateful for the process and the tears were the culmination of the fear and hard work. Cole felt relieved.

• Cole & Ib talked about doing the Dollar & A Dream tour (small venues with tix for $1). The idea was to get people excited for the album. Demand was extremely high.

• They recalled the show that took place on the night that the album dropped and they brought out Drake in NYC. When he performed ‘Started from the Bottom,’ they said the roof felt like it was gonna collapse. Cole & Drake made ‘Jodeci Freestyle’ shortly after

• Cole & Ib talked about Yeezus and Born Sinner finally dropping. Cole said he expected Ye to blow him out of the water sales-wise, but he wanted to be in the conversation when people talked about which was better. Turns out, sales were closer than Cole would’ve thought (Ye sold $30k more). Cole & Ib were shocked at how much they sold and were so proud. The 2nd week #’s were even better, Born Sinner outperformed Yeezus and finally got to #1 in its 4th week.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 8 Highlights - ‘Born Sinner Pt. 2’ (Part 4)

• They talked about the infamous 2013 BET awards where Cole, DJ Drama & Brandon T. Jackson wore the same Versace sweater to the ceremony. The backstory is that Cole was given the sweater out of a selection of chosen fits from a stylist. Cole wanted to wear something more relaxed, but Ib and some others were gassing up the sweater so Cole talked himself into it. Said it was part of this criticism that he felt like his image was lacking and he needed to “level up” with something more expensive and flashy to look like a star. When he saw the 2 others wearing the same sweater, he got pissed and changed.

• They spoke about the Born Sinner tour and how it performed below expectations. They put a lot into the production, but venues were less full than they were for the Sideline Story tour in some cases (the largest cities for the most part had a good showing but the smallest cities did not). For some of the more disappointing shows, Cole recalls starting to point fingers because of his overall unhappiness blaming everyone else for the tour’s underperformance. In one instance at a club in Germany, hardly anyone showed up and Cole played just a 20 minute set, super frustrated with how things went. But it wasn’t just frustration with the tour (bc by many measures he was still doing very well commercially). This was a frustration that things weren’t going exactly as he had planned for his career. He even recalled being pissed that he was in the “50s or 60s” for a Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs of the Year list. He would never fret about this small of an issue nowadays.

• At that point, Cole realized that wasn’t him. It’s a strong belief of Cole’s now that he is “responsible for his reality” but back then it was all pointing fingers and blame game. He had an honest conversation with himself and decided to take back his life (instead of blaming everyone around him).

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 8 Highlights - ‘Born Sinner Pt. 2’ (Part 5)

• Once he was honest with himself, Cole said he felt like his whole vision opened up. It was towards the end of the Born Sinner tour and nearly 2014. An idea popped in Cole’s head: to make his next album ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr’ with themes of returning to his roots and also decided that he wanted to buy back his old house at the same address (it underwent foreclosure when his stepdad went to the military and his mom couldn’t pay for it). This moment of clarity enabled him to get some of his confidence back and see what direction he wanted to take his next album. Cole said he was gonna be a “leader,” a “general” this time around and not point fingers.

• The only artist that J. Cole wanted to sign to Dreamville was Kendrick Lamar

• In January 2014 at a show in NYC, Cole & Ib announced the founding of Dreamville with a flyer and physical mixtape of ‘Revenge of the Dreamers’ (which wasn’t available online) on every seat. They brought out Jay-Z and Kendrick for this show, Cole had everyone throwin up the Roc and borrowed the Roc-A-Fella chain from Jay. Once they did that, the DJ started playing ‘Interlude’ by Jay-Z and Hov came out to perform it. Crowd went nuts, and Cole said Jay even let him keep the chain (the OG). Cole said it was a huge moment for him to get that love from Jay after a lot of the noise early on was that Jay didn’t give him much public support.

• Ib talked about how with Dreamville, they tried to stay away from putting too much pressure on the artists to force commercial success based on Cole’s negative experience in his career with that. He said they could probably strike a better balance between allowing creative freedom while also still encouraging the commercial success, but they lean more towards the former based on Cole’s experience.

• They then rented a house in LA to start the next album, with Cole having clear vision for the first time in years.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 9 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (Part 1)’

• This episode discussed Cole’s clarity moving into the Forest Hills Drive era, how he became ready to craft this album, and why it turned out so well, especially in contrast to some of the more difficult circumstances surrounding the previous albums.

• Moving into the next stage of his career, Cole’s vision became more clear and he realized a lot of his unhappiness from the Born Sinner era stemmed from caring too much about what people think. It was affecting him at every stage of the creative process, even down to him making beats thinking like what would people like the most? His next step was focusing on what HE liked. Started with getting off social media and stopped reading comments.

• Cole began meditating and said that helped with his clarity a lot. He wasn’t gonna give in to the game, he was gonna do what he wanted to do. One example of this was growing his hair out, which was an instance of people telling him to look a certain way and him ignoring that and just letting it happen. It felt good to not mess with it. He wasn’t gonna conform to what the standard was for a star.

• Cole set new rules for himself and was the most disciplined he’d ever been. With this newfound mindset, he had a blank canvas to begin working on the album.

• Cole listened to ‘Abbey Road’ by The Beatles & ‘The Love Below’ by André 3000 (half of OutKast double album) every day on a run. Had a strict structure and calls this one of the greatest times in his life.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 9 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (Part 2)’

• Ib remarked that because Cole was in such a good place personally and mentally, that gave him the ability to make his biggest (and many would say “best”) album, 2014 Forest Hills Dr.

• Cole talked about reprioritizing what he did in his free time. Said early on they loved partying, but at this time, it was about doing something that brought him joy. Every Wednesday night, they went to a comedy night in Hollywood and he loved that and it gave him energy.

• Cole said what distinguished this era from his others is that he was himself, he wasn’t reaching. When he hears tracks that didn’t make the albums across Sideline Story, Born Sinner & 2014 Forest Hills Dr (and even some that did make the album), the ones from FHD still resonate because he was in the zone, that was him. He wasn’t trying to be anyone else. Cole recited the Kanye line “When you try hard, that’s when you die hard.” He was trying to find who he was in this space and he finally found it during FHD.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 9 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (Part 3)

• Cole talked about making the beat for ‘No Role Modelz.’ DJ Dahi heard the beat from Phonix Beats, and Dahi gave it to Cole talking about how he heard it and thought of him. Cole played the beat and loved it, but almost got intimidated by how good it was. Cole & Ib knew it was the one.

• Cole wrote the first part (up through the pre-hook “One time for my LA sisters” part) and sat on it, didn’t want to force the rest. It took him a few days to come up with the rest, including the hook, which he came up with by calling back to Project Pat’s “Don’t Save Her.” Cole loved it off rip.

• Cole talks about ‘Apparently’ and how it was a sign of how free he was during this time. It was kinda crazy how he came out belting out singing on it but it worked and he would never been able to do it without this freedom. 2014 Forest Hills Dr was the album he always wanted to make, and the reason he was able to make it was bc of the trials and tribulations he went through before to open himself up to this level of songwriting. “This is my canvas, imma paint it how I want to”.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 9 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (Part 4)

• They talked about finding the sample for ‘January 28.’ At the time, Loaded Lux was in a major battle and Cole talked about how crazy that was (and how he wasn’t part of Battle Rap culture but that battle transcended just the Battle Rap fans). Said Loaded Lux had used that sample (Cole tweaked it) and Cole tracked down the producers who did it and gave them credit despite them not owning the beat (basically did it as a gesture of good will)

• They played ‘03 Adolescence’ and Ib talked about the white media outlets that they never got validation from, and how this is one of those tracks that those type of critics would never understand. Ib said 2nd verse is one of Cole’s best ever.

• Cole talked about getting out of his “hermit” stage at the time, pulling up on Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa (separately) and kicking it with them, hearing what they working on and playing them music. When Cole played Vic and someone on his team ‘03 Adolescence,’ Cole said their reaction was like “This is how I used to feel when I heard you” basically saying that Cole tapped into his previous energy like on The Warm Up or FNL and Cole completely agrees with that sentiment. He felt like himself again.

• Cole talked about ‘Love Yourz’ being one of his favorite songs he ever made. One time was biking in Washington Heights (uptown Manhattan) and saw graffiti that said “Love Yourz.” He was shocked at his impact.

• Cole discussed the fork in the road that he reached around this time. It was, be the rapper who is out having fun and living like a rockstar or be the family man, lowkey, comfortable w/o flashy clothes etc. He picked the latter, and became more disciplined within his life to reach that direction that would bring happiness.

“This album was all about going home.” -Ib

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 10 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (pt 2)’ Part 1

• This episode reflects on the making of 2014 Forest Hills Dr and Cole going home, both literally and figuratively.

• Cole didn’t feel rushed for this album, they did more tweaking and sequencing than his previous albums (which all felt super rushed).

• Cole talked about the making of ‘Be Free’ (famously performed on Letterman in 2014). Michael Brown & Eric Garner had both been murdered at the hands of police, and people were protesting in the streets. Cole felt the energy, and prayed to God asking if it was His will, for Cole to talk about it on a record. He started making ‘Be Free’ shortly after, and that’s what came out of his mouth. “Let me be a vessel if it’s meant to be.”

• Cole had been watching livestreams of the protests and decided to fly to Ferguson to experience it for himself. He reached out to his team and offered to pay for anyone’s flight that wanted to go, and they all flew out. He said the experience in Ferguson was amazing despite the tragic circumstances - being able to connect with the local people there and experience the unifying nature of these tragic events. Said they got harassed by police for doing nothing, and said the narratives popping up in the media about protestors being violent were crazy because they saw the protests being peaceful and it was the police bringing on the aggression when they used violence + tear gas to break up the protests.

• The energy on ‘Intro’ is similar to ‘Be Free’ (the raw honesty, the acoustic instruments) because Cole made these around the same time and he wanted to add some of that raw spirit to Forest Hills Dr. They talked about how ‘Be Free’ has this sort of imperfection (you can hear the page turning, Cole’s scratchy vocals) that actually makes it more real and beautiful.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 10 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (pt 2)’ Part 2

• Kendrick liked the beat for ‘St. Tropez’ and asked Cole to send it to him so he did. But Cole wrote to it and liked his version so much that he asked for it back. Kendrick said no problem but “you owe me one”.

• Cole & Ib said the mentality for the rollout was no single and we’re gonna do it our way. Surprise drops weren’t really a thing except for Beyoncé. If it bricked, they were comfortable with that knowing they did it how they wanted to. The label said “who do you think you are, Beyoncé?” Chaka Pilgrim pulled Ib to the side later and told him “This is something we would do with Hov,” and that was just confirmation that they were doing the right thing.

• It was coming down to the wire with the album (October, due in November) and Cole considered pushing to 2015. Ib was like hell nah we’re not dropping 2014 Forest Hills Dr in 2015. It was a double album at this time and Cole decided it was too long. Cut off what I assume are the deluxe tracks, and added ‘Wet Dreamz’ which if you can remember was created in the mixtape days. Cole said it fit perfectly with the tracklist and the album was missing the energy brought on by that song.

• Cole had this fear of dropping at the time of the album release. He was able to reconcile with his emotions much better this time than in the past - felt weird, meditated and realized he had this fear of facing the public reaction once it drops. Then dealt with that. “Well, what’s the worst case scenario? Etc.” Eventually came to terms with the fact that he made this album how he wanted to make it, he knew it was good, and he would have to be okay with whatever the reaction was. Younger him lacked this self reflection.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 10 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (pt 2)’ Part 3

• Album dropped and exceeded expectations (375,000 first week). People were loving it.

• Before touring for FHD, Cole played a bunch of smaller market shows at small venues as a sort of warm up to the larger tour. Said he was inspired by watching comedy shows where comedians would do small shows and bring a notebook on stage to try out the material. Perfected the set list that way.

• Cole developed a love of editing at the time of FHD with the music videos. Not so much doing everything start to finish but more so tweaking things or choosing shots that the actual editor may have cut. This came from his confidence of being able to be like nah I want to stay on this shot longer. A less decisive Cole wouldn’t have felt comfortable with that.

• The reason why there’s no video for ‘No Role Modelz’ is because they didn’t expect how big it would be, and by the time it was doing numbers on the charts/radio, Cole was burnt out and they had already put out several videos so at that point it was just like oh well.

• They talked about Hov coming out to Fayetteville for the 2014 Forest Hills Dr tour stop. Cole didn’t think it would happen because artists of that stature just rarely come out to the Ville. Asked Jay, and told him he would pay for the plane. Jay was like nah I’ll get my own plane but yes I’ll do it. It was a feeling of “You earned it.” Hov came out to Niggas in Paris and the crowd went ballistic

• Said Drake coming out at the same show was equally as big, and shouted out Big Sean & YG for pulling up too. Said it’s crazy cuz Fayetteville gets none of those names usually.

J. Cole Audio Series Episode 10 Highlights - ‘2014 Forest Hills Dr (pt 2)’ Part 4

• Cole talked about getting married and having kids after the album. He said these weren’t life changing events like you would expect, instead, he changed his life to get ready for them. Needed a clear vision to be faithful and know the type of person he wanted to be.

• After the album, Cole moved to Fayetteville and lived in a 1 bedroom apartment (Cole was living way below his means; this was like a starter place for someone who just graduated and got a job). He had to sneak in the back door just to get inside. But he felt so refreshed and could finally relax. Caught up on Netflix and finally felt solidified in his spot and comfortable in his career.

• Speaking on that feeling of comfortable, Cole came up with the idea of ‘The Fall Off’ because once he got so comfortable, his writing wasn’t as good and he lacked that hunger, hence, the “Fall Off.”

This is the end of Season 1

@slimetime @tunemoon @JGOGang @Kota95 @ThaDon @Leftside

I posted a summary of the last 4 episodes in case yall didn't hear the rest of the audio episodes.

The Fall Off on the way

Thanks bro. Very great summaries. I actually bought the pod after reading one of your earlier ones. Salute to you 🫡

Thank you so much I'm diving in now

Looking forward to it.

I think this is gonna be Cole's best album.

Appreciate you for posting these

Appreciate you fam

Took some time but I managed to save local offline copies of all 10 episodes.

If anyone is still trying to listen to this or wants to keep this available for offline playback then feel free to follow me and quote this and I'll hit your DMs with a link.

Appreciate you. Can you send?

Still remember watching that EP w/Cole on Letterman

'Forget that watch, you made too much for it!

you outta be ashamed

when brothers is back home is dreading when the seasons change

Cause they ain't got no heat

And they aint got no AC

Walmart distribution fired my homie he just had a baby'

😞

Oh s***, Part 2 came out???

Good looks

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