It looks like J. Cole is adding some more talent to his Dreamville Imprint. Earlier today, Jermaine confirmed that he has signed L.A. rapper, Cozz.
Cozz, a South Central, Los Angeles rapper, took to twitter earlier today to celebrate his new deal, typing “All I can say is thank GOD, tha whole committee squad, and @JColeNC for tha opportunity..tha take over begins #dreamville #committee." Cozz’s current & only single is appropriately titled “Dreams” and can be seen below. Look for his debut release, Cozz & Effect, to drop later this Summer.
Bas, who became Dreamville’s first signing earlier this year, also welcomed Cozz to the team today.
Check out the tweets and videos below, and stay tuned for more Cozz in the future.
[Update: Cozz Speaks On Being Signed]
Just days after his surprise signing to Dreamville, Cozz spoke to Complex about meeting J. Cole and Game, as well as his upcoming debut album. Check out excerpts from the interview below.
How did this deal with Dreamville/Interscope come about? It kind of caught people by surprise like, “Who is this Cozz dude?”
Tone—aka Anthony, my manager—he used to intern at Interscope, and basically he was like, “You want to get serious about rapping?” He knew I rapped, or was trying to, so we started recording. Then we put the “Dreams” video out a couple months back, and we had labels just hitting us up left and right. We had meetings every day. We knew what we wanted, and we felt like we was worth a lot too, so we shopped around with the label thing.
Then we had a homie named Matt who brought the video to J. Cole, and Cole liked it. We met up with Cole and in between these months we just been working it out with the whole deal and getting these contracts right. So it basically happened off the “Dreams” video.
You mentioned how labels were reaching out and you were meeting with these people, but they didn’t really have what you were looking for. What’s the vision you have for your music?
My project, Cozz & Effect, is pretty much done, and we felt like the music was so strong. We wanted full creative control, and we wanted to kind of do the whole thing ourselves. With Cole and Dreamville, they gave us that flexibility to do whatever we felt like we needed to do music-wise with putting stuff out, what videos we wanted to drop, and what we wanted to shoot. That’s what we were mainly looking for. And we judge on character, too. We feel like Dreamville as a whole, they’re just real genuine people too. So we really rocked with them on that.
That’s got to be a great feeling for someone like Cole to say, “This guy is next.”
It is. I’m still taking it in. It’s still brand new for me, the fact that I’ve never dropped nothing else, and like you said, Cole digs it. It’s crazy.
You were also spotted with Game a few months back. What was that meeting about?
My homie Tunji, pretty sure you’ve heard of him—he’s an A&R at Interscope—he played [“Dreams”] for Game, and Game liked the song. So we met up for dinner to talk a little business.
Was Game showing an interest in signing you as well?
Yeah, he was showing interest. I didn’t think it was the right move for us. But he was showing interest, for sure.
What can fans expect from your upcoming album Cozz & Effect? What’s the theme of the project?
Basically, it’s my story. It’s like a piece of me. I just feel like it’s something the world has never heard before. I feel like I got stuff on there that’ll hit you deep like “Dreams,” and I got my fun stuff too. I got both sides of the world. I’m so anxious to put it out, man.
This is a project you’ve been working on prior to the signing with Dreamville. Did the signing change the trajectory of it, or is it still the same project that you were going to be releasing before the deal?
It’s the same project, man, same project. Same thing we were working on before the deals and everything. We put this together ourselves. Cole liked it the way it is, so there ain’t really too many changes on it.
Do you have any collaborations on the album?
I got two. It’s people within my city. It might change though. But as of right now, it’s just them.
Is there a specific release date in mind?
We’re figuring that out. Definitely before the summer ends.
Read the full interview here.