J. Cole has debuted unreleased music with Pharrell, including a song that even he himself admits would get him “canceled” today.
During the latest episode of his career-recapping audio series Inevitable, the Dreamville rapper played two shelved tracks that he recorded with the Neptunes producer for his 2011 debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story.
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The first, titled “First Taste of Money,” finds a young Cole celebrating his financial come-up over a buoyant beat that sounds eerily similar to the Clipse‘s “I’m Good,” a fact that Cole himself acknowledged in the episode.
“After [Pharrell and I came up with] the hook trying to write the song, I remember the struggles at that time of like, ‘What the fuck do I have to offer on a song like this?’ I think the answer was, ‘Not much,'” he admitted.
J. Cole x Pharrell – "First Taste of Money" (Unreleased)
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The second song, on the other hand, is one that J. Cole still “fucks with” to this day. The untitled track pairs braggadocious bars from the North Carolina native with a wonky beat that Pharrell “made in seven minutes.”
Despite his palpable enthusiasm for the unreleased cut, Cole was left shaking his head at one particular line: “I had short paper and then I blew up on you n-ggas / Talk is cheap so I’m Jewish on you n-ggas.”
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“No disrespect. That’s a cancelable offense!” he jokingly pleaded while listening to the song. “This is not acceptable talk anymore, man. We’re very sensitive [today]. These are not stereotypes that can just rock, man.
“I was still 24. It didn’t even feel like a harmful thing at the time. That’s insane that a n-gga would just freely say that. That’s crazy.”
J. Cole x Pharrell – Unreleased Song #2
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Of course, neither song wound up on Cole World: The Sideline Story, which Cole attributed to unwanted pressure placed on his studio session with Pharrell by his label, JAY-Z‘s Roc Nation.
“It was incredible being [in the studio] with Pharrell [but] I think they hit him with the same energy like, ‘We gonna send Cole to you, we need one.’ And I think that ruins [the magic],” he opined.
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“If I would’ve got in with Pharrell on my own time with no pressure, I think it would have been amazing. But it was tainted with the pressure — from his side and from my side. Even with that, though, it was still a hella enjoyable experience.”
Cole explained that he was put in the studio with Pharrell with the specific goal of creating a hit single that would propel his debut album.
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The decision came after the then-rising rapper made it clear to his A&R at Roc Nation that he was more interested in crafting a “classic” album than chasing a radio record — comments that got back to Hov and bemused the Marcy Projects mogul.
“I was telling Rich [Kleiman], ‘Honestly, bro, I don’t really care about a hit record. All I need is for my first album to be a classic,'” Cole recalled.
“Because when you have the classic, then you can go elsewhere. Once you have Illmatic, then you can get away with like ‘You Owe Me’ and some of these other songs […] The classic buys you the freedom to start putting your shots up.”
He continued: “The next day, I get a call from Mark Pitts [Cole’s then-manager]. He’s like, ‘Yo, I just got a call from Jay. Did you say something to Rich Kleiman about you don’t wanna have no hits or something?’
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“I was like, ‘I mean, I didn’t put it like that, but I explained that I just want to have a classic first album and then I’ll get to the hits. That’s not my intention right now.'”
According to Cole, Hov told Pitts over the phone: “Yo, what the fuck is your man talking about? He don’t want no hits?! What are we doing this for?”
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J. Cole and Roc Nation ultimately settled on “Work Out” as the lead single from Cole World: The Sideline Story, which cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped the album debut atop the Billboard 200 with over 200,000 first-week sales.
Not bad for a rapper unconcerned with commercial success, huh?
