Under julhelgen publicerade den excentriske kanadensiske journalisten Nardwuar sin senaste intervju, med ingen mindre än J. Cole. En av intervjuns mest uppmärksammade segment handlar om hur J. Cole ska ha tipsat N.W.A-legendaren Dr. Dre om att signa Kendrick Lamar. På den direkta frågan blir Cole uppenbarligen överraskad och säger:

 

“Who told you that? Who gave you that piece of information?… The answer is, yes. I did. I’m not gonna say I was the first to tell him […] I was like, ‘Yo, you gotta sign this kid from Compton.”

“Shoutout to Dr. Dre. He made the right decision.”

Även om Cole numera driver ett eget skivbolagsimperium med Dreamville, så hade han i början av 2010-talet inga möjligheter att själv slå mynt av rapkollegans talang.

“100 percent. I don’t know what I would’ve signed him to, you know what I mean? We didn’t have our business intact, but that’s how much I rocked with him at that time. I met him, and instantly was highly impressed. That would’ve been the first artist in my mind [to sign], but come to find out, he had bigger shit going on.”

Vidare i intervju talar Cole och Nardwuar om jubilerande albumet “Forest Hills Drive”, samplingen av First Choice’s “Armed and Extremely Dangerous” till singeln “Middle Child”, passionen för basket och hans tidigaste skapelser inom rap under aliaset “Therapist”.