Roc Nation artist, J. Cole chops it up with Complex about working with Jay-Z,appearing on the Blueprint 3, how he landed a verse on "A Star Is Born" and his debut album, which he says should be coming Spring 2010. Here's a snippet of the interview:
Complex: How were you approached to be on “A Star Is Born”?
J. Cole: I had a show in show in Virginia. This was back when I was just opening up for Wale on like a few dates. So, I was in Virginia, and I had two shows, one in Norfolk, and one in Richmond. I get a get a call from Mark Pitts and he’s like, “Yo nigga, Jay just hit hit me. He said he got something big for you.” I was like, “Oh shit, what you mean?” He said, “He got this Kanye track… something about a star is born…some shit about a star.” I thought, from his explanation, because you can tell he wasn’t too clear on it, I thought Jay just had a joint for me. I thought it would be mine, and I was on some shit like, Ahhh, I don’t like being told “get on this” or whatever. But I’m like, Damn!
Complex: Even by Jay-Z?
J. Cole: Even by Jay-Z, yeah. That’s when the reality set in: Well, yeah it is Jay saying it, and it’s Kanye, so what the fuck you gon’ do? You gotta do it.
Complex: What was your process for writing the verse?
J. Cole: I’ll tell you this: the first five to ten minutes was spent with me trying to clear my mind, because 90 percent of my thoughts was like, I’m in the studio with Jay-Z. He’s sitting on the couch watching me write, watching my process. He was trying to act like he wasn’t watching. He was on his laptop, threw his headphones on, but his head was boppin’ to the studio beat, so it was like, “You not foolin’ me!” So I’m half like, Oh shit, this nigga’s watching me, analyzing my process, maybe trying to see how I’m working, and the other side was trying to think of lines. So after the first ten minutes, once I was like, “Yo, nigga, get to work!” that’s when it all started to flow. I really just tried to have to have faith in myself. I didn’t race in or nothing like that. Whatever I put on the page was pretty much what i ended up saying. And I thought it was ill, but it wasn’t until the last line, when i was like, “The flow cold as the shoulders of gold diggin’ hoes when a broke nigga approaches”… when the line came to my head, it was almost like that scenario can’t really rhyme that well! And then I was like, Oh, shit, it does! I was as confident as i could be in a verse, given the circumstances.
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