The moment J Cole realised Nas was “one of the greatest”
J Cole has been a Nas fan for as long as he can remember, but there was one moment he came to the realisation that he was better than everyone else in the game. The Dreamville rapper was nine years old at the time Illmatic — widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time — came out, so it wasn’t that project that did it for him.
Instead, it was the time his cousin made him listen to ‘I Gave You Power’ from It Was Written that changed his world. In that moment, he realised he needed to scrub up on Nas’ catalog, paving the way for him to then discover Illmatic.
”When this album dropped I had to be nine, so I give myself a pass for missing out on this at first,” he told Complex. “It wasn’t until my cousin forced me to listen to ‘I Gave You Power’ off of It Was Written that I realised Nas was one of the greatest, and I had some homework to do! Illmatic is one of those albums that demonstrates the highest level of lyricism possible!”
DJ Premier produced ‘I Gave You Power’ for Nas’ second studio album in 1996, having already produced classics such as ‘N.Y. State of Mind’, ‘Represent’ and ‘Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)’ on Illmatic. Cole holds Nas’ opinion so high that he even named a song ‘Let Nas Down’ after learning the Queensbridge rapper was unimpressed with ‘Work Out’ from his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story. ‘Work Out’ came about after Cole listened to Kanye West’s The College Dropout and felt like he needed a song with the same energy.
“One night I was in this hotel room after a show, and I was listening to The College Dropout, as I do,” he said during a listening session. “And on the worst song on that album — which is my favourite album, so I’m not dissing — but on the worse song on that album, ‘The New Workout Plan’, I heard the shit that I had been hearing for like eight years now.
“I heard it different as a producer, like, ‘Oh shit.’ Made a rough version of the beat right there in the hotel room. By the time I got back to Europe a few days later I had ‘Work Out’.”
J. Cole’s goal was a success, with ‘Work Out’ becoming the biggest song from that album, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, shortly after it dropped, Cole received a call from producer No I.D. telling him that Nas hated the single. This prompted him to write a tribute to Nas in the form of ‘Let Nas Down’, detailing how disappointed he was with himself.
As it turned out, J. Cole releasing ‘Let Nas Down’ worked to win back Nas’ approval, with the latter tweeting, “You made me proud man,” following its release. Cole once named Nas as one of his top five rappers alongside 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z and Eminem, with André 3000 just missing out on his elite list.