J. Cole Recalls Jay-Z Telling Drake to Give Him a Hit Record Heading Into ‘Cole World’

Many rappers have been the beneficiaries of the Drake stimulus package over the years, and Jay-Z believed J. Cole needed to align himself in that camp and get on the receiving end of a hit record with the 6 God.

During a recent episode of Cole’s Inevitable audio series, the Dreamville boss and his manager Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad recalled a time during the 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend when Jay-Z embarrassed Cole by asking Drake to give him a hit while they were all engaged in conversation.

“We having a conversation. Me, Cole, Drake, Future [The Prince]. I don’t know who else, but there were a couple more people,” Ib said. “So then Jay walks in and he sees all of us together. He goes, ‘Yo.’ And he looks at Drake and he says, ‘Give the boy one!’ Points at Cole, like, basically give him a hit. We’re all like, ‘What?’ I even remember Future’s face being like, ‘That’s embarrassing.’”

Cole admitted that he was “hot” at the situation: “[Jay’s] looking at Drake and pointing at me and going, ‘Give him a hit — give my boy a hit.’”

Ib continued: “What I do remember is being at the dinner after that and I’m just looking at Cole and he looks pissed.”

Months prior to the exchange, Drake and J. Cole teamed up for “In the Morning” on Friday Night Lights, which cracked the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and peaked at No. 57. J. Cole even tried to remind Jay-Z that the rollout of his 1996 Reasonable Doubt debut didn’t have any commercial smashes.

Either way, Cole went back to the drawing board and came back with hits leading into Cole World: The Sideline Story, which arrived in September 2011. “Work Out” reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he followed up with the Trey Songz-assisted “Can’t Get Enough,” which peaked at No. 52 on the chart.