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The beautiful story of J. Cole's " Let Nas Down", a thread
A wholesome story of a back and forth between a prodigy of the rap game and his biggest idol.
A wholesome story of a back and forth between a prodigy of the rap game and his biggest idol.
J. Cole released his second studio album on June 18, 2013. On track 15 called "Let Nas Down", Cole recounts his efforts to come up with a single for his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story.
Cole described during a private listening session in NYC, how when he posed his label boss, Jay-Z, with single options, he didn't like them. He eventually came up with "Work Out". which Cole affirmed was a commercial radio record, but he was surprised by the negative response
The real painful blow was when producer No I.D. was contacted by Nas who expressed his disappointment in "Work Out." Cole went on the defense. "I'm getting defensive, but really, I'm just hurt as a fan. I idolize that dude; I had his raps written on the wall."
Despite all the criticism, the song proved to be a success, peaking at #7. "Eventually 'Work Out' became a monster record."
Cole said: "I felt like [Nas] didn't know the reason why I put the song out. I wrote ["Let Nas Down"] a year and some change after it happened and I didn't tell anybody that I wrote this song until now... It stuck with me for that long."
Cole's manager Ibrahim Hamad recalls that "Cole never mentioned to anyone that he wrote this song or that he was thinking about writing this song, he came to the studio one day, didn't say a single word and just went in the booth and took it one time straight through." here it is
Right after recording the record 'Let Nas Down', in a fateful coincidence he bumps into Nas on the airport and shows his the track.
Eventually Nas asks for the track and remixes it making "Made Nas Proud". Nas praises and builds up Cole while paying respects to his idols as well. Beautiful
Here Cole talks about the moment that was created between him and his idol:
Cole also spoke in honor of Nas beautifully for the Vibe Impact Award, here's the
Full link:
Full link:
To wrap this moment, they even appeared together on the Vibe magazine cover.
The public doesn't spotlight moments where an exchange of appreciation and positive dialogue on record. The beauty of this moment lives on forever in their art as it should.
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