J Cole’s five best beats produced for other rappers
J Cole is known best for his rapping, but he is, too, a producer of some ability.
Production has been a passion of his since he was a kid, dissecting his favourite rap songs, learning about the samples that his mother or stepfather could pick out from hip-hop tracks. But as he got a bit older, it was actually Timbaland’s production skills that began to inspire him most.
As he reflected to Music Radar in 2019, “I couldn’t even fathom [how Timbaland produced music], where you would get started, but I was interested. On Aaliyah’s third album, the song ‘More Than a Woman’ was so next-level to me. I just sat there trying to imagine how he made it. After that, I started trying things…”
He got good at it, and, while some of his best production work over the years has been for his own songs, he’s also made some amazing beats for other artists. Here’s a list of the some of the best.
J Cole’s five best beats produced for other rappers
5. Cordae ft. Anderson .Paak – ‘RNP’
‘RNP,’ or ‘Rich N— Problems,’ was, at the time of its release, Cordae’s best-performing single, the third one to be released from his debut album, The Lost Boy.
It didn’t exactly set the world alight, in terms of its commercial performance, but ‘RNP’ charted around the world and, with help from Anderson .Paak’s contributions, introduced audiences to who Cordae was. It’s a good listen, with Cordae and .Paak trading bars back and forth, but what really makes it work is J Cole’s production, which has a really fun bounce to it. It’s a nice beat, a playful way to let the two rappers have fun with.
4. Pusha T ft. Kanye West, A$AP Rocky & The Dream – ‘MPA’
Another acronym, ‘MPA’—money, pussy, alcohol—featured on Pusha T’s King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, which, technically, was his second studio album upon its release at the end of 2015, but was conceptionally intended as a prequel to his then-unreleased album Daytona, which would come out two and a half years later.
Pusha T managed to bring a bunch of heavy hitters onto ‘MPA,’ and, while Kanye West, A$AP Rocky and The-Dream can all be heard on the track, it’s the beat from J Cole that is the most important contribution. It ties the whole thing together.
3. Fabolous – ‘Louis Vuitton’
Fabolous’ The Soul Mixtape 2 was released in 2012, and a definite highlight is the J Cole-produced track ‘Louis Vuitton.’ Featuring a Marvin Gaye sample—‘Poor Abbey Walsh,’ from Gaye’s classic 1972 album Trouble Man—‘Louis Vuitton’ is a moody number on which Cole also raps, but it’s his production that is up for the most praise here.
His taste for the piano—he taught himself how to play when he was a kid—is entirely evident throughout, while the beat is sharp and heavy, inducing a lot of energy into a track that could otherwise have felt a bit ponderous.
2. Kendrick Lamar – ‘HiiiPoWeR’
J Cole was a part of Kendrick’s story right from the start, producing one of the best tracks from his debut album Section.80.
It was the first time the two had ever worked together, and Cole’s production skills left a huge impression on K-Dot. “His production is crazy, man,” Kendrick said, speaking with The Come Up Show in 2011. “The first time we locked in, he played about 10 beats. I wanted 11 of ’em.”
1. Mac Miller – ‘Hurt Feelings’
In the build-up to the release of his fifth album, Swimming, Mac Miller sat down with Zane Lowe to talk about the album’s production. Speaking on Lowe’s Apple Music show, Miller pointed out how important J Cole was during the process. 00
“Nine, no, 95 per cent of the songs were done in my room,” he said. “I went to Hawaii. Cole sent over two beats. You know, we had a conversation, and conversation is the most important part, as long as you can have a conversation, you can make music… He sent over some tracks and I did [‘Hurt Feelings’].” That song is certainly one of the album’s highlights, so kudos to Cole.