Speaking with MTV, J. Cole speaks on how he lost out on the No I.D.-produced “Stay” instrumental which he has before Nas George Bush’d the button and gave it a home on Life Is Good.
We did the most incredible songs in one week. We did ‘Not Too Late,’ ‘Stay,’ ‘Never Told’ and a few more joints that haven’t even come out yet. ‘Stay’ was towards the end of the process — he just looped up this sample, and while he’s looping up the sample, I’m writing the words, and before you know it, I have the song. ‘Stay’ was my favorite song that was absolutely going on my first album, but I guess I’ll just chalk it up to my inexperience in the game. As time goes on, I’m not solidifying it, which basically means I’m not locking down the beat from No I.D. Long story short, I didn’t buy that beat from No I.D., and Nas bought that beat. He didn’t even know I did a joint on it either. I don’t even know if he knows, but I had that shit first.
That taught me a lesson real quick: If you want a record, you have to put some money down on it. Honestly, I heard Nas’ joint one time, and I can’t listen again. It’s hard for me. It’s rightfully his record, he put it out first, and he killed it too, but I can’t listen.
He also reveals that he missed out on Rick Ross’ “Tears of Joey” as well.
The same thing happened with ‘Tears of Joy.’ I smacked myself. That’s two classics that was supposed to be mine. But ‘Tears of Joy,’ I couldn’t have did what Ross did on that, because [I] was in a bad place. Me and No I.D. was in the studio, but the label was on me about some hits, so it was a bad session. I squeezed out a verse on ‘Tears of Joy,’ but I was not in a good place to do anything close to what Ross did on that. But I still smack myself about those.
J. Cole’s new project Truly Yours — which includes his version of “Stay” from 2009 — is available now. As well as his new single “Power Trip” featuring Miguel.
