At long last, we finally have an answer about the mysterious collab album by J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar. Cole made an appearance on Lil Yachty’s A Safe Place podcast, where he explained the origins of the album.
Rumors of the collab album have circulated for over a decade, and Cole confirmed that the two did, in fact, meet around the time Lamar was working on his 2011 independent album, Section.80.
“Closer to the album, I get into all of this,” said Cole of his earliest meetings with Lamar, “so in-depth it’s crazy.”
Cole remembered meeting Lamar at No ID’s home studio. Cole had a collection of beats at the time, including the track for “HiiiPower,” which ended up as a solo Lamar song on Section.80.
“In that moment, we talked about ‘Yo bro, we should do a project,” said Cole. “At that time, he not on like that, but I’m f*cking with him…Him being so excited — because that’s a look for him at that point — so I think he went to Twitter, like ‘Me and J. Cole got something crazy coming’ and he put up a picture of us together.”
The two did end up recording material together, however, as both of their stars were on the rise, and they never found time to complete the project.
“At one point it was a real thing… but time and life, we ain’t never got a chance to like really go in,” Cole said.
While the two still have love and admiration for each other, it doesn’t seem like the album will see the light of day anytime soon.
“We put it to bed years ago,” said Cole, “but at one point in time, it was a conversation for sure.”
You can see the full episode of A Safe Place above.