J. COLE with AIRPLANE BOYS at Sound Academy (11 Polson), Saturday (September 3), 9 pm. $30. RT, SS, TM. See listing.
J. Cole is having a harried moment. Hours before our scheduled interview, the rising North Carolina MC learned that a sample on the opening track of his debut LP, Cole World: The Sideline Story, hasn’t cleared. The release date is a month away.
“It’s heartbreaking that [re-recording] has gotta happen,” he says over the phone from a tour stop in Edmonton. “I got a day to make that shit happen – not only match the feel of the sample, but change it enough so it’s not the same.”
The sample is from the original soundtrack for the video Kingdom Hearts by Japanese composer Yoko Shimomura, who is apparently unreachable. In between answering my questions, Cole’s arranging to have his keyboard and equipment set up so he can rework the song.
The setback capped an already eventful week for the 26-year-old. He kicked off a world tour in Vancouver, where an overexcited female fan nicked his cellphone from his pants during the show. He realized the he’d been robbed five minutes after the gig. (When he threatened to release a video of the crime on Twitter, she returned it, explaining that she’d been tipsy and “caught up in the moment.”)
He also shot down his first big tabloid rumour (a sex tape with Rihanna) and landed a guest verse from his mentor, Roc Nation label head Jay-Z. It’s one of the new album’s four cameos, alongside Drake, Trey Songz and Missy Elliott, who shows up on a track he describes as a cross between UGK and Aaliyah. Despite the high-powered names, he aimed to keep the guest appearances light.
“It was really about proving to myself that I was good enough to produce the majority or 90 per cent of my album and rap on all the songs without having to lean on that crutch of guest features.”
A witty and introspective rapper, Cole is also a producer and wrote most of the music on the debut. After releasing his first mixtape, The Come Up, in 2007, he became the first Roc Nation signee, a distinction that came loaded with expectations about his being Jay-Z’s heir apparent.
He sold out Sound Academy last December, and his record was due in the spring. The release date came and went, a situation he chalks up to label indecision. “There was a lot of overthinking on the single choices,” he explains. “It happened as it was supposed to happen.”
He calls Jay-Z his mentor, but when Hov’s joint album with Kanye West, Watch The Throne, came out during the final week of recording his album, he felt pressure to step up his game.
The dynamic is reminiscent of Jay-Z’s relationship with West a decade ago, which the latter chronicled in painful detail on songs Last Call and Big Brother. Cole World features a similar type of song.
“It’s an unspoken competition,” he says. “I used to feel like I was watching from a fan standpoint – and I still am a big fan – but now it’s more competitive.
“He’s not competing with me literally, because there is no comparison in terms of where he is in his career and where I’m at. I could never compete with him, but in my mind that’s what keeps me going: the thought of maybe.”
music@nowtoronto.com
