J. Cole reveals he found Timbaland produced “Amari” beat on youtube.
Last week, J. Cole released his new album “The Off-Season” which is all set to debut at #1 on Billboard 200. The 12 song project featured assistance from 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and more. A couple of days ago, he dropped the first video of the project, for one of the fan-favorite “Amari” which is produced by legendary Timbaland. Now in a clip shared by Timbaland’s beat club, J. Cole talks about how he first recorded the song on a Timbaland produced rip he found on Youtube.
Also Checkout: J. Cole Talks About Competition with Drake & Kendrick Lamar.
“Sometimes I watch Timbaland like he’s on Twitch, so he go live on Twitch sometimes, I don’t be on Twitch but I watch his youtubes, somebody shares it on youtube,” says Cole. “So it was like, Timbaland makes beat so I clicked it, I was like ‘oh sh*t, oh my god, this is crazy’. I was gonna hit him right there like let me get the beat but I’m like Nah cause sometimes I hit somebody for a beat and then f**k around and not do nothing. So I’m like I can’t do that to Tim, you know what I mean. So I looped up the youtube little rip. made a whole song on this sh*t.” “I spent the next two days writing and recording the song, and right when I was 90% through writin’ it, I was like, I should probably call him now and get the real file.”
Timbaland, who produced “Amari,” first came up with the idea for the song’s beat during a Twitch broadcast he hosted. Cole opted to record over it after hearing it. During the conversation, he remarked.
“I spent the next two days writing and recording the song, and right when I was 90% through writin’ it, I was like, I should probably call him now and get the real file. And I hit ’em. I was like, ‘Can you send me that beat you played on Twitch?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll send it to you. Which one?’ And I played him the beat and he was like, ‘I didn’t save that one.’ I was like what the f**k. So he had to remake it.”
“Amari” became his third top-five single on the list after debuting at number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in its first week. The Off-Season is predicted to start at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums list, selling between 280,000 and 310,000 copies in its first week. If these figures hold true, Cole will have the largest debut of 2021, surpassing Taylor Swift’s Fearless, which now holds the top place with 290K.
Cole debuted the official music video for “Amari” on May 17, 2021. It was directed by Mez, a fellow North Carolina rapper who also worked on the “Middle Child” video. Cole may be seen rapping in the video in scenes where a Dreamville chopper is in the background and in a dorm room with platinum plaques covering the wall. At the conclusion, a message that reads, “Hold on to your Inner Child,” appears.
Cole has had a busy month, having inked a three-to-six-game deal with Rwanda’s Patriots BBC of the Basketball Africa League on Monday (May 10). Cole returned to the floor after dropping The Off-Season, making his formal professional basketball debut on Sunday (May 16) against Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers.
During its first week of release, “Amari” entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at #5, becoming the artist’s third track to reach the top five on the chart from his album The Off-Season.
The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, with 282,000 album-equivalent units sold in its first week (including 37,000 in pure album sales). This marked the artist’s seventh #1 album on the chart. At the time of its release, “The Off-Season” achieved the highest streaming week of 2021, with over 325.5 million on-demand streams.
Check it out below.
