Re: J Cole Born Sinner Sharebeast Zip
Gerarda Zmuda
COLE: Yeah, I am. I've been busy for the past couple weeks just on promo mode. But this is album release week so yeah, it's particularly crazy and hectic and you don't get a real free moment. But it's all good. It's all for the cause.
COLE: It's mixed feelings. I wanted it to kind of be experienced one way, you know what I mean? That's your goal. Your plan is, you want people to go get it on release day, hear it. That's why the mixtapes were so great. It's like, we control when we press play or when we press send.
MUHAMMAD: I'm still a DJ, I'm still a record collector. And I just love getting that joint on record release day and being a part of that energy and just to, you know, feel it for the first time. But in this new position I'm in, I gotta get things early. So I waited until the last minute.
COLE: That was the last song I did right before I turned in the album. I literally had two days to turn in the album, and there's one song that I did and it didn't get cleared. They would not clear the sample because Jimi Hendrix owned like a piece of the song. It wasn't even his song, but he owned a piece of the publishing from the group or something like a tiny percent, and they would not clear it. So I needed something to go in that spot, to fill that void.
Next thing I know, we're in this trailer park. And when I say this trailer park, this is not like Eminem 8 Mile white trash trailer park like the stereotype you're thinking about. Nah, this is the hood, like this is the projects but just in trailer park form. So, even though I was four, I was very aware of like, "Yo, this is so different from where we was just at."
"Power Trip" explores another side that like I feel like a lot of rappers won't show, which is, yo, what if you're just shy? You know what I mean? What if you just don't really have the balls to holler at this particular woman? What happens then? Why is nobody talking about that? Well, guess what? I'ma tell you about it 'cause I know what it's like to be that, too. I know what it's like to be that person. So it's a different level of honesty that I feel like I have been trying to bring to the game.
MUHAMMAD: Is there a battle between the producer J. Cole and the rapper J. Cole in terms of time? Because for me, production takes, I don't know, it's exploratory so I just get lost in it.
COLE: Yeah. I actually wish I would have paid attention more in those classes. I was just caught up in college. I got good grades but like I didn't really grasp as much as I paid for.
COLE: Tiffany was this girl that I went to elementary school with who was the first person that I ever knew that got killed. That's why I even brought her name up in that song. Because it was the first time that somebody dying wasn't just on the news, you know what I mean? It wasn't just in a movie or something. It was somebody that I was actually in class with. This girl was here yesterday and now she's not there.
MUHAMMAD: Love the song. Just the mood of it, and everything. It kind of goes on a journey from the beginning to where it ends. And I love the "born sinner" and what do you say? "Die better than that"?
COLE: Yeah. "I'm a born sinner / But I die better than that." That line is crazy. I didn't write it. That's James Fauntleroy who wrote that line. When he did that hook, we was in London and I had those two verses over that beat but I didn't have a hook. And I happened to be in the studio with him because he was working on Rihanna.
With your record, the fact that you sprinkle a lot of love into your record, because it's woven in love and it's woven in questioning these situations of life. And being young and this is what our life is: it's about money, it's about going hard to get things, it's about like, "Yo, should I be doing that?" You know, "What's better? What's out there for me?" And I think the way that you deliver it is kinda where blues artists were. Where Tupac was. Where certain writers, certain artists ...
COLE: Thank you, brother. I will, man, I will. I'm just excited, man. You even saying these things. Man, it's just an honor, a privilege. I don't even know what to say, bro. You're breaking it down for me. I'm like, damn. Thank you.
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