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J Cole always admired Jay-Z, which made it such a big achievement when, as a young man, he was signed to Hov’s Roc Nation. This, literally, was a dream come true for an up-and-coming rapper who’d been listening to Jay-Z ever since he was a kid.

As Cole revealed to Complex as part of what it referred to as its “J Cole week,” as a kid he was obsessed with one of Jay’s albums in particular: The Blueprint, which happened to be released on September 11, 2001—the very day of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. The record might have been expected to get lost amid the grief and fear that swept through New York and America at this time, but its quality ultimately wasn’t ignored.

The Blueprint is now broadly considered to be one of Jay-Z’s best works, a fact recognised by its place within the National Recording Registry. It was added to the list in 2019, in recognition of its “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” place in American culture. It relies heavily on soul samples, with production having been handled by the likes of Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Bink, with Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Eminem also doing a little bit. Eminem rapped on the album, too, the only person to perform a guest verse.

The album was critically acclaimed when it was released, and one person who adored it was a young J Cole. He would have been a teenager around this time, and he became absolutely obsessed with the record. “I still remember where I was at and where I bought the album from,” he recounted to Complex. “I remember driving around in my mom’s car, because she had a little mini-system in her car. I remember playing this album to death, front to back.”

Cole did admit, though, that there was one tune that he tended to skip—and it happened to be one of the big ones. “I only skipped one song,” he said, “which was ‘Jigga That N—a,’ but even that I used to play. So even the song I skipped I still know the lyrics to. It’s just a classic, hands down.”

Cole was famously such a big Jay-Z fan that, when he was beginning to emerge as a young rapper, he tried to personally hand over his demos to his idol. He visited Jay’s recording studio in New York, hoping to show him what he’d been working on. The ploy didn’t work. After several hours of waiting around, Jay managed to get rid of him.

All was not lost, of course. The demos that Cole had intended to show Jay-Z that day ultimately informed much of his first mixtape, The Come Up. This release helped to generate a buzz around Cole, which, ultimately, would lead Jay-Z to sign him to Roc Nation after all.

It only got better for Cole from there. He was later invited to feature on the sequel of his favourite Jay-Z album, performing on the track ‘A Star Is Born’ which appeared on 2009’s The Blueprint 3. Not many people get to live their adolescent dreams in such a literal way, but Cole did—and he was as nervous about it as anyone else would have been.

Remembering the ‘A Star Is Born’ recording session while he was on stage at his Dreamville Festival in early 2025, he told the crowd, “We walk in the studio. I’m already nervous… I see this n—a Jay-Z and who the fuck was right next to him? Beyoncé. Oh my God. My motherfucking heart damn near fell out my chest.”