J. Cole can easily be called a musical hermit, because he rarely collabs with other rappers.
The North Carolina spitter broke this routine a while back, when he worked with others for the Revenge of the Dreamers III LP, on 21 Savage's "A lot," Young Thug's "The London," and Gang Starr's cut"Family and Loyalty," off the group's 2019 release One of the Best Yet.
So why hasn't Cole collabed with more people during his career? He said it was a combination of rap's competitive nature and worrying about being dissed by others when reaching out.
"The first thing that rushed to my mind was the missed opportunity of community," wrote Cole in an article for The Players' Tribune. "A combination of a competitive ego mixed with a deep fear of rejection had kept me from collaborating with peers that I respected all of these years and prevented me from building real friendships with them. I had spent my career closed off. I didn’t want that to be the case forever."
"Four years have passed," Cole added. "In that time I’ve been blessed with two sons, learned the delicate art of balance between parenthood and career, had the pleasure of working with a ton of talented artists as a featured rapper, spent 10 magical days recording a Dreamville album in Atlanta, and put a lot of time and energy into sharpening my sword and growing as an artist."
Do you want to see Cole jump on more records with people or do you like him flying solo on most of his songs?