J. Cole Reveals The Song That Won JAY-Z's Approval: 'That Was A Moment For Me'

J. Cole has recalled the moment that he finally won over JAY-Z.

The Dreamville rapper may be part of Hip Hop’s “Big Three” alongside Drake and Kendrick Lamar, but rewind 15 years and he was a hungry young rookie looking to not only cement his place in the rap game but earn the approval of his Roc Nation label boss, Hov.

Throughout his recently launched audio series Inevitable, Cole has spoken at length about his somewhat complicated relationship with the rap legend, to whom he signed in early 2009, and his early struggles to be taken seriously.

But all that changed in September 2010 when he dropped “Villematic,” an emphatic freestyle over Kanye West‘s “Devil in a New Dress.”

As Cole explained in the latest episode of the 10-part series, the much-loved track received an uncharacteristically enthusiastic response from JAY-Z, who is an otherwise notoriously tough critic.

“The reaction that I got from Jay on this song — he didn’t hit me or nothing, but we were at that Yankee Stadium show [with Eminem],” he said. “You have to understand at this time, yeah, I was signed to Jay but it wasn’t like Jay is my man. Nah, seeing Jay was a rare occasion.

“I always was like, ‘This is somebody I idolize and really respect, but I still want to do it on my own.’ I wanted [him to look at me] as a peer [rather than as a little brother].”

Cole’s longtime manager and Inevitable co-host Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad chimed in: “Around that time there was the joke, There’s no picture of Cole and Jay. Jay don’t fuck with Cole. Which is funny, but the reality was you made it a point to be like, ‘I’m not gonna bother this n-gga.'”

Cole then recalled being backstage at the concert and bumping into Hov: “I see Jay coming out of the artist lounge where friends and family be at and he was like, ‘Cole! Yo, n-gga!’

“I’ll never forget it ’cause he said it like this: ‘That ‘Villematic’?!’ He called it ‘Vill-er-matic’ [laughs]. He said, ‘Woo! That’s my favorite joint I ever heard from you.’ That was a moment for me.”

The song wound up on the mixtape Friday Night Lights, which J. Cole released for free two months later and took his career to the next level, setting the stage for his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story (which would arrive the following year).

Adding to the nostalgia of Inevitable, Friday Night Lights was released on streaming services for the first time on Wednesday (November 27), following previous projects The Come Up and The Warm Up.

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“This is a very special moment for me. Been waiting patiently for this day, like a lot of yall have,” Cole wrote on Instagram of the long-awaited release.

“I wanna say Thank you to everybody out there that kept these projects alive, even during all the years they were not on streaming services, especially this project right here. Friday Nights Lights finally available now on all platforms.”

He added: “To have a full idea of what this means for me personally, you would have to know the whooole journey. This Inevitable series we doing, is that.”