J. Cole talks rumoured Kendrick Lamar collab album: “It was a real thing”

J. Cole has revealed that his rumoured Kendrick Lamar collab album was in fact “real”.

• READ MORE: J. Cole’s 10 best songs – ever!

A joint album between the pair had been reported since 2010, and managed to join forces on 2013 track ‘Forbidden Fruit’. However, in 2018, J. Cole gave an interview denying the rumours.

“It’s not like it’s something that’s actively happening,” he said at the time. “Not because it’s never gonna happen. Just because, like… it’s not right now, and I don’t like teasing or playing the game ’cause this has been going on for a minute.”

Now, the Fayetteville rapper has clarified the whole story with Lil Yachty on his podcast A Safe Place, telling him “at one point, it was a real thing.”

“In a nutshell, [Kendrick Lamar] had pulled up on me at No I.D.’s spot after we was already building this relationship, and I had these beats at the time and I was playing them for him,” he began. One of these beats would eventually become ‘HiiiPoWeR’, which Cole produced for Lamar on his acclaimed 2011 debut album ‘Section.80’.

Cole continued, saying: “So he took them and, you know, in that moment, we talked about, ‘Yo, bro, we should do a project.’ At that time he’s not on like that, but I’m fuckin’ with him.”

“At one point, it was a real thing,” he said. “But bro, time and life, we ain’t ever got the chance to go in and do it correctly, because that would take time. For us to do something that’s full of our potential, that meets our real potential, you’re gonna need time. At least a year.

“When you got two successful artists with lives and families, that’s hard to do. We put it to bed years ago. But at one point in time, it was a real conversation, for sure.”

He also added: “It’s not like it’s a ton of songs. It’s not like it’s some album sitting on the shelf somewhere.”

J. Cole last released music in 2021 with ‘The Off-Season’, a record which he hinted would lead to his retirement after its completion. NME gave a three-star rating: “Non-conforming, ‘The Off-Season’ is a little bit off in places and its steadiness can be one-note, but it’s still a strong piece technically. You might not play this album every day, but it would still be a strong record for J. Cole to end on.”

The rapper has not released music since. However, he appeared on stage with Drake at his recent Montreal gig in place of 21 Savage, who at the time could not visit due to his visa issues. J. Cole also briefly appeared on Summer Walker’s new EP ‘Clear 2: Soft Life‘, which was released in May this year.