The colossal Big Sean song that was originally made for J Cole
Rappers passing on beats is a story as old as time. One of J Cole’s biggest regrets is likely to be a Big Sean song that took the hip-hop world by storm and sparked friendly competition between rappers at the top of their game.
Sean released his ‘Control‘ song in 2013, which featured verses from Jay Electronica and Kendrick Lamar. The latter’s verse shook up the music industry, with Kendrick calling out 11 rappers by name: Cole, Meek Mill, Drake, Big KRIT, Wale, Pusha T, A$AP Rocky, Tyler, The Creator, Mac Miller and, last but not least, Sean and Electronica.
He raps on the song, “I got love for you all but I’m trying to murder you n*ggas / Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you n*ggas / They don’t want to hear not one more noun or verb from you n*ggas.”
Speaking to Stereogum in 2023, legendary producer No ID, who produced ‘Control’, revealed that the beat was initially made for Cole. Not only that, but Jay-Z was second in line to rap over the production before Sean.
“[J Cole and I] were talking, because I got a running joke with him, which is, ‘If I do sessions with you, I’m gonna make amazing music for other people that you won’t use,’” he said. “And the first iteration of that beat was made for J Cole. And then I made another version for Jay[-Z], and then I made another version for Sean. So sometimes when I think an idea is special, I will work on it for a long time and make many versions of it. And sometimes people will be like, ‘Why you didn’t give me that?’ And I’ll be like, ‘I did.’”
‘Control’ was supposed to appear on Sean’s second album Hall of Fame but didn’t make the final cut. While it was rumoured that the reason was related to sample clearance issues involving the 1974 song ‘El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido’ by Quilapayún and Sergio Ortega, No ID said that wasn’t the case. “No, ’cause actually, that’s all live instrumentation, it was definitely a replay,” he said. “But I’m sure that’s a good reason to say. It was a big issue at the company, too, it was a lot of stuff going on.”
‘Control’ isn’t the only No ID beat that Cole has turned down over the years. Around the same time, the Dreamville rapper also rejected Sean’s ‘My Last’, Nas’ ‘Stay’ and Rick Ross’ ‘Tears of Joy’ while they were in the studio together. “It was like a week or two we was working in the beginning,” he said. “For him, I did the ‘Control’ beat, Nas ‘Stay’, ‘Tears of Joy’, ‘My Last’ and something else. And it was just like, ‘Nah, that ain’t it.’”
Cole has collaborated with No ID on other occasions, including ‘Never Told’ from his debut album Cole World: A Sideline Story. He also produced Jay-Z’s ‘A Star Is Born’ from The Blueprint 3 and Melanie Fiona’s ‘This Time’, which Cole featured on.
During an interview with Vibe in 2013, Sean stated that he knew the impact ‘Control’ would have on the genre. “I knew what it was for the culture of hip-hop,” he said. “You see how excited people are, and I wanted to do that for music—make that play happen. It gave me like the feeling of how hip-hop was. How it used to be.”
He added, “When I heard [Kendrick’s] verse I wasn’t about to go back and change my verse—that’s cheating. That ain’t the way of an O.G. That ain’t how G’s move. I wanted to [release the song] for the culture of hip-hop as opposed to myself.“