J. Cole‘s newest song “Procrastination (Broke)” happened when he found and rapped over a YouTube producer’s “J. Cole type beat” – but it turns out the title was almost named after André 3000 instead.
On Monday (January 23), HipHopDX caught up with Bvtman, the Brooklyn-bred beatmaker behind the track. He’d been producing beats for around four years when he struck gold with “Procrastination,” but Cole wasn’t who he originally had in mind.
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“Actually, I had Andre 3k in mind,” he told DX.
Later in the conversation, he revealed the moment that Cole’s manager Ibrahim “IB” Hamad contacted him to let him know about the life-changing song.
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“I’m on the highway with my girl and his mgr DMs me talking about, ‘We need to connect. Cole did something for you,'” Bvtman said. “And I’m like nah, this ain’t real.”
He continued: “He said, ‘Yo, Cole needed inspiration one day and he found one of your beats so he did a verse that he really wants to put out.’ I’m like, ‘Oh word?’ I’m still not believing it. And he hits me back up and he said, ‘Yo, he did the verse on your beat. I’m about to send it to you.’ And then he shows me the text and I’m like oh nah, this real.”
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The moment he got to hear the song was just as special. “I was in my kitchen and my girl is right there and I’m like, ‘Yo, hold up — you gotta listen to this with me!'” Bvtman explained. “So I played it. I played it on my speakers and I’m blasting it and I’m like, ‘Yo hold on son, hold on. This is crazy.’ So I just start screaming! I started screaming, running around yelling.”
And there was a special synergy with the song too – because despite being born and raised in Brooklyn, Bvtman had just moved to J. Cole’s native North Carolina when he made the beat.
As for future work with the platinum-selling rapper, Bvtman said that’s still up in the air. “[I haven’t sent Cole anything] yet because I’m still doing my YouTube thing so I put my beats up there still,” he said. “But I’ma set aside a little folder and maybe in about a week or two I’ll send him a little airdrop.”
“Procrastination” arrived on YouTube on January 18 by a largely unknown Bvtman, with cover art that was a screenshot of a message Cole sent to him. The Roc Nation star explained he was struggling for inspiration one day when he searched “J. Cole type beat” on YouTube and came across the producer’s instrumental.
“This song should live on your channel and serve as a thank you to you and every producer out there cooking up and sharing their work with the world,” Cole wrote in the message. “It’s a million artists out there right now just like me, hungry and searching every day for something to spark a word, a melody, a hook, a verse, a punchline, a way to vent, or a way to CUT THROUGH.
“On a day when I couldn’t find much motivation, I was looking for anything to inspire me. Out of curiosity, I typed in ‘J. Cole type beat’ into YouTube. Yours was the first I saw. I pressed play, focused, and wrote this. This is some shit that would normally stay in the vault, but I don’t want to hold onto the music like that no more.”
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He added: “This is for you and whoever else need to hear it. God bless bro and keep doing what you do!”
“Procrastination (Broke)” serves as J. Cole’s first offering since his contributions to Dreamville’s D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, which dropped last March. It followed his sixth studio album The Off-Season, which arrived in May 2021.
