J Cole’s five best guest verses
J Cole, throughout what has, at this stage, been a long career in rap music, has certainly gotten around. In addition to his own studio albums, six of them, with another on the way, and a bunch of mixtapes, he’s appeared on plenty of other people’s work, too. He seems to get a lot out of it.
During the creation of his sixth studio album, The Off-Season, a film-making team was present to capture some moments in the studio, where Cole was putting together his record. The resulting short documentary, Applying Pressure, offers a fascinating insight into an artist at work, and, while the focus of the doc is obviously Cole’s Off-Season album, there is one moment where he reflects on his experiences of featuring on other people’s work. The way he sees it, it helps him to grow as an artist—maybe even as a person.
“When you put yourself in uncomfortable moments,” he reflected, “you find out a lot about yourself, and usually, you find that you’re capable of rising to that bar that’s set by that uncomfortable situation.”
Whether as a producer or as a rapper, Cole has helped make some great songs alongside his contemporaries, but we’ll focus on his vocal contributions here. He’s performed some nice rhymes for the sake of bolstering other people’s music, so let’s take a look at some of the best.
J Cole’s five best guest verses:
5. Beyoncé – ‘Party’
The Grammy-nominated ‘Party’ has a bit of a retro feel, but is, naturally, driven primarily by the power of Beyoncé’s lead vocal. Featured on her fourth album, aptly named 4, which came out in 2011, Queen Bey leaves space for some guests—and, originally, J Cole was nowhere to be seen.
When the track first came out, it featured the contributions of André 3000, with some background vocals from Kanye West and Consequence, but later a remix was released in which André 3000’s verse was replaced by a new one delivered by J Cole. Cole’s verse was shorter than André’s, but, in it, he thanked God and Ice Cube, mentioned Bugatti, and referenced Sade. It’s a solid contribution to a good pop song.
4. The Game – ‘Pray’
When, last year, J Cole very publicly apologised for his past disses against Kendrick Lamar, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a fairly mature thing to do. To back down from a previous stance you no longer believe in, to admit to being wrong and taking part in “the lamest shit” ever by dissing a contemporary—it was all perfectly nice and well-spirited. Except not everyone was happy about it, least of all one of Cole’s own past collaborators.
The way that the Game saw it, rap had gone soft—and J Cole was partly responsible. His apology to Kendrick had, in his words, watered down rap into “Kool-Aid [with] no sugar.” That must have stung Cole, after the pair had previously gotten on so well on ‘Pray,’ a track on the Game’s 2012 album Jesus Piece. Still, the track itself remains a good one.
3. Kanye West – ‘Looking For Trouble’
While ‘Looking For Trouble’ appeared as a bonus track on Cole’s 2010 mixtape Friday Night Lights, it was very much a Kanye West-driven creation. Also featuring Pusha T, Big Sean and CyHi Da Prynce, the song was part of Ye’s GOOD Fridays project, where he released a new song every Friday for several months to promote his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Cole had very little time to write his verse, as he explained to Complex after its release. “So I got a call from Kanye and he was like, ‘What’s up? It’s Kanye. Can you get that verse today? I’m tryna put the song out tonight,’” Cole explained. “I honestly didn’t think I could do it in time so I told him that. He said, ‘I’ll wait. We got engineers up all night so you got a while to do it. But if you can, have it done by today.’ I said, ‘I’ll make it happen somehow.’”
Cole got to work and, somehow, managed to put his verse together and send it to Kanye by 5pm. Later that same night, after a gig J Cole was doing had finished, the track was out there. “When I got offstage, he had just put the song out, and I sat back and watched all the comments as people went crazy,” he said. “It was a beautiful night.”
2. JID – ‘Off Deez’
When JID was putting together ‘Off Deez’ for his 2018 DiCaprio 2, he knew he wanted a guest to appear on the track—but it wasn’t meant to be J Cole. JID had initially wanted Kendrick Lamar to do it, but the dreamy collaboration didn’t work out. “I sent it to Kendrick first,” JID told BOSSIP while he was promoting DiCaprio 2. “Facts, that’s 100% what happened.” Scheduling, sadly, got in the way, which JID had known was likely.
“I sent it [to] Kendrick first,” JID went on. “Long shot, Kendrick was going on The Championship Tour so it was just a long shot. I knew it wasn’t gonna happen and it’s understandable because he’s a superstar and has obligations. I sent it through the proper channels it just didn’t work out, but he fucked with it.” When his idea of getting Kendrick on board fell through, he turned to Cole, who, thankfully, put in a solid verse and ensured the track was a good one.
1. Gang Starr – ‘Family and Loyalty’
Nobody, in the year 2019, could reasonably have expected there to ever be a seventh album by Gang Starr in the world, given that one half of the duo, Guru, had died nine years previously. But surviving member DJ Premier had a vision to do one last record and to celebrate the legacy of his old friend. He produced the final Gang Starr album, One of the Best Yet, by using unreleased vocals that Guru had laid down before he died, plus he brought a lot of guests on board, too.
J Cole’s contribution to the track ‘Family and Loyalty’ is among the best, and Premier himself was full of praise for what Cole does. “When it comes to this generation of emcees, ones that are lyrically on the level that Guru was on and someone that he would want to work with; Cole is that guy,” he noted around the time of the track’s release.