50 Cent wasn’t sure if the world was ready for J.Cole.
Around the time of the release of J. Cole’s debut mixtape “The Come Up” in 2007, 50 Cent provided an explanation for his decision not to sign the artist. The Queens native was questioned by Charlamagne Tha God about why he ignored the future Dreamville artist, who approached his house and played him songs before making a name for himself in the late ’00s, during an interview on The Breakfast Club on Friday (August 12).
50 claimed that he didn’t think there was a big enough market at the time for a “conscious” rapper like J. Cole, considering the prevalence of the more neighbourhood songs he and G-Unit were releasing.
“That was so early, bro… “To me, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar… These artists existed early on when I fell in love with Hip Hop, but it was Talib Kweli, it was Mos Def, it was A Tribe Called Quest, it was Common Sense.”
“As dope as they are, it’s smarter rap, smarter music. The logic is: ‘sit down, be humble.’ We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there, it’s almost the conscious side of it.”
He added: “I’m like, Yo, it was cool, but I didn’t really know if everybody was ready for it because of how strong they were embracing what we were doing.”
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Even while 50 felt Cole’s music was “great,” he acknowledged that he wasn’t confident if fans at the period were “ready” for a more “conscious” rapper. Tony Yayo, a close associate of Fif’s, said this month that he nearly signed the Fayetteville native prior Jay-Z bringing him to Roc Nation. Cole visited with them at 50’s house in Connecticut, where he performed “Simba” from The Come Up, he disclosed.
In 2009, JAY-Z, a previous nemesis of 50 Cent, took advantage of his wasted chance by adding J. Cole as his first artist to his emerging Roc Nation label. A collab was made between the North Carolina native and 50 in the song “New York Times” from his second album Born Sinner from 2013.
Tony Yayo remembered taking a young Cole to 50’s residence where he played him songs from his 2007 mixtape The Come Up during a recent conversation with VladTV.
“I was on J. Cole early,” Yayo said. “When J. Cole was in 50’s crib, he was in the basement playing ‘Simba’ and all that, before he was signed with Jay.”
“TBT Overseas with J. cole it’s crazy he was at @50cent crib playing Simba I knew he was going to blow before Jay signed em,” he wrote in the caption while sharing a photo of him stood next to Cole.
“If the Label let me do the A&r work Cole, DannyBrown, and a couple other mainstream artist would have been on the Unit.”
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Watch the full interview of 50 Cent.
