Dave East credits J. Cole for helping him up his game.
Dave East recently connected with HipHopDX at the 2023 Grammy Awards red carpet, where he was asked about J. Cole pulling up to his music video in 2020. The Harlem emcee then recalled the moment and shouted out Dreamville’s boss for inspiration to up the game.
“I took a lot from that,” he said. “Just his whole energy, you know what I mean? For him to be who he is at the level he’s at and give me that game like that, give me that little bit of advice just to help my own sh*t out.”
“I definitely apply it to what I got going on. My new album, you definitely going to hear some of that in there. But yeah, big shout out to J. Cole,” he added.
Previously in his interview with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1, East revealed the advice from Cole regarding his rapping. “I got a chance to lock in with J. Cole, just me and him in the studio with the engineer,” said Dave East. “And he asked that same question, like, ‘Bro, I’m a fan of what you do, I really respect your pen, but you rap with one tone.’ And I really sat and listened to myself, and a lot of my sh*t is one tone. Me and him in the studio testing tones. He’s just really seeing how high I can take my voice, how low I can take it, and then he just was like, ‘Apply that to your music. Watch the difference. That’s just something I gotta keep working at, keep working at. I think it will be something dope to add to my music.”
In his discussion, Dave East disclosed his top three mixtapes of all time, which included Ghost in the Machine by Styles P, The Champ Is Here by Jadakiss, and any of Lil Wayne’s mixtapes.
He also mentioned that the first verse he learned by heart was Nas’ “You Won’t See Me Tonight,” featuring Aaliyah, and proceeded to recite it flawlessly from memory.
