J. Cole recently reflected on his first time hearing Drake’s music and how it influenced his own journey as an artist. On his audio series Inevitable, co-hosted by Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim Hamad, Cole recalled discovering Drake on MySpace before his rise to global fame. “It was one dude in particular that I remember seeing on MySpace, and he was this light-skinned R&B-looking ni**a, but he had raps,” he said. “It was kind of neo-soul-type raps, like on some Little Brother sh*t, but he was talking about women or something. The ni**a’s whole demeanor was hella smooth. But his plays were through the roof for a nia you’ve never heard of or has never been signed! I was like, ‘Who is this ni**a?! How does he have 20,000 plays in a day?!’”
Cole admitted he didn’t initially realize Drake had a fanbase from his acting days on Degrassi. Tracks like “Sooner Than Later” and “Say What’s Real” left a strong impression, especially the latter, a freestyle over Kanye West’s “Say You Will.” “He f**king destroyed that sh*t,” Cole said. “I was blown away at how much he bodied that f**king beat. I was like, ‘Yo, he’s f**king phenomenal.’”
Hearing Drake challenged Cole’s confidence in his unique lane. “For so long, I felt confident in the fact that I was the only one occupying that space […] the second I heard [‘Say What’s Real’], one, I was blown away. But two, subconsciously I was like, ‘Ha! There was someone else out there the whole time […] who had the same opportunity to occupy a certain lane.’”
This realization shifted Cole’s approach to his 2009 mixtape The Warm Up, pushing him to elevate his craft, inspired by Drake’s cultural impact.
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