Black Thought he is easily one of the greatest lyricists of all time, so it would be safe to assume that many artists who have had the opportunity to work with him know that they have their work cut out for them. During a recent conversation, the frontman for The roots shared that he may have been scared J. Cole from working on a collective project.
Black Thought, 52, was a guest on This week on White Supremacy podcast with host Dr. Jasiri X and discussed the Philadelphia star's journey as a rapper on his way to becoming a New York Times best-selling author.
After sharing details about his book, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Arethe artist born Tariq Trotter shared how he connected with J. Cole about six years ago to attempt a joint project.
“I don't know the brother well, but he and I had talked at some point about making music together. In early 2018, it hit me like, 'Yo, let's make an album,'” Thought shared around the 29:00 minute mark. “I told him to send me some music. I told him I was with him. It wasn't like, “Send me some music to see if I want to do it,” it was like, “Let me see what you think.”
Thought added that the beats Cole initially sent him were very close to the sound he achieved with The Roots, and his solo work sounds different from his band. After asking for a new set of beats, Thought said the energy kind of shifted.
“So I asked him to make a different batch, I gave him an explanation and in my explanation I think I scared him. Maybe some of the trigger words I used, like “I want something hard. This beat is not aggressive enough.'
Black Thought weighed in on J. Cole apologizing to Kendrick Lamar after dropping and later deleting “7 Minute Drill” and more.
Watch the full interview below.
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Photo: Getty