Music

Platinum with a Few Features: J. Cole was Trying to Get Yasiin Bey to Appear on ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’

J. Cole was this close to ruining the “platinum with no features” meme before it could even start.

Monday, December 9th, was the five year anniversary of one of the greatest rap albums of the 2010s: 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole’s third album. 

Dreamville fans spent the day celebrating the album, now considered a classic. Ibrahim Hamad, J. Cole’s manager, was feeling sentimental about the album. Hamad went to Twitter to release some interesting tidbits about the album. 

The first thing he revealed was that Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, and Future were both supposed to appear on the album. This move would have effectively killed the “platinum with no features” meme that J. Cole has become embarrassed by.


Hamad also told some sample clearance war stories, detailing how “03′ Adolescence” and “January 28th” were almost cut due to sampling clearance issues.


Check out some more tweets from Hamad. He talks about cutting the album down, potentially pushing the album, the genesis of “Wet Dreamz” and more.


A day after the anniversary J. Cole came to Twitter to celebrate his best album.

Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Dimas Sanfiorenzo is the Managing Editor for Okayplayer. He specializes in coverage centered around music, pop culture, and politics. Email: Dimas@okayplayer.com

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