J Cole explains how Drake “changed the game”
J Cole thought he had a plan in place for his The Warm Up mixtape, then So Far Gone happened. The Dreamville rapper has gone into detail about how Drake changed his entire mindset before releasing his second project.
The latest episode of Cole’s Inevitable audio series is centred around 2009’s The Warm Up, with the ‘Middle Child’ rapper speaking candidly about his confidence leading up to the project. Until Drake came along, Cole felt like he had what it took to stand out from the crowd.
“‘I’m the only one with that perspective, and that sharp of a pen,'” he said of his mindset at the time. “And I was like, ‘Yo, that’s gon’ be my thing.’ Like, that’s what’s going to separate me from the pack. So the second I heard that Drake freestyle, I was blown away because of how good it was.”
He continued, “Subconsciously, I was like, ‘Ha.’ There was someone else out there the whole time that was working maybe just as hard as I was working, and was thinking the same things, maybe. [Someone] who had the same opportunities to come and occupy a certain space and lane that I never saw any competition for.”
Cole admitted he didn’t know quite how big Drake was and called the release of So Far Gone a “phenomenal shift” in the culture. Quickly, he realised he needed to catch up, having not even completed his deal with Roc Nation yet.
“‘Not only am I the only one in the space, I’m now actually starting late,'” he said about his thought process. “‘My deal with [Jay-Z] ain’t even done. I’m not even anybody yet, and this n-gga’s off to the races with joints, hits, culturally shifting shit.’ At that moment, I had to shift my mindset about what The Warm Up was about to be, ’cause Drake just changed the game.”
J Cole and Drake have collaborated a number of times throughout their careers, teaming up on tracks like ‘In the Morning’, ‘Jodeci Freestyle’, ‘Evil Ways’ and ‘First Person Shooter’. The latter song earned Cole his first number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023.