Jay Rock’s favourite rappers of all time: “We come from the same type of struggles”
Jay Rock is one of the best rappers to come out of the West Coast over the past 20 years alongside fellow TDE members Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul, who together form Black Hippy. The Los Angeles rapper, raised in Watts, hasn’t been afraid to name his influences over the years and give credit to the best rappers.
The ‘King’s Dead’ rapper once revealed that J Cole is one of his favourite rappers of all time, putting him inside his top five. “I fucks with Cole heavy, man. You know, he was on my last album, Redemption, on ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’, so yeah, Cole is one of those ones, for sure. That’s my bro.
“Actually, I remember a long time ago, pulling up to the studio with [K.]Dot. Him and Dot when they was having their lil thing going on, I don’t know if it was talked about them doing an album, but I know they did a lot of records together and stuff. So that’s how I met him, through Dot.”
Rock collaborated with Cole on ‘OSOM’, which was a song included on his last album Redemption in 2018. “Shout out to J Cole. We come from the same type of struggles. He put the real in his music, I put the real in mine,” he told Billboard. “We’re all connected. Everybody think alike. Big shout out to Jermaine Cole, man. He’s doing his thing. He got real powerful messages in his music.
He added, “Every time I hear him do something, he inspires me. I’m trying to inspire him when I do something. It’s just us black men coming together and uplifting each other.”
Speaking on the meaning behind their track, he told Genius, “‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is just like not worrying about the bullshit. You just got to keep focused on your goal. It’s like I say, ‘Time is everything.’ Sometimes I be like, ‘Man I got to get this done.’ Sometimes I feel like it’s going on a time limit. Time is precious. You got to make sure everything counts. That’s basically what that whole concept really is.”
Aside from Cole, Rock has also praised veteran rappers such as Nas, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne, who often appear on lists about the best rappers in history. Not only that, but he also named a more modern rapper in Atlanta’s JID, who is signed to Cole, as well as one of his best friends.
“When I hear rappers from like Nas, Busta, Jay-Z, like I said, the Wayne’s, J Cole’s, you feel me, JID, a lot of these rappers, the lyricists out, even Soul, Ab-Soul’s last project, I told him he’s like the G.O.A.T. to me, you feel me?” he said during an interview.
“So just hearing these projects, it gives me motivation to go in and just go harder, not half-arse do shit. Just really have a real thought process about what I’m gon’ say and what I’m gon’ do and attack it.”