Black Thought is as respected as a rapper can get. The frontman of The Roots is regularly cited as one of the greatest lyricists of all time, so anybody who plans to keep up with him better be nice. J Cole thought he was up to the challenge. Black Thought recently appeared on This Week In White Supremacy Podcast (bold name, we know) to reveal that Cole approached him about doing a collab album. The rapper admits he considered the idea. Ultimately, though, the collab album never came together.
Black Thought was asked about the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle that's taken the music world by storm. The host claimed that nobody has ever dared beef with Black Thought, and the rapper confirmed this theory. He was then asked about J. Cole's decision to apologize to Lamar following the release of his diss. He didn't pick team Drake or team Lamar, but he commended Cole for his actions. He described the apology as "beautiful," and felt like it showed "humility and nobility" on the rapper's part. "When the plane's going down," he asserted. "You gotta situate your own oxygen mask first."
Black Thought Thinks He "Scared" J. Cole Off
Black Thought's high opinion on Cole led to him dropping a bombshell about their previous encounter. He told the host that the Dreamville rapper approached him for a full-length project a few years back. Thought was into the idea. "He and I had talked about doing music together," The Roots rapper noted. "Beginning of 2018, he hit me like, 'Yo, let's do an album.' I told him to send me some music. It was like let me see what you're thinking." Black Thought ultimately felt like Cole wanted to make something that was identical to what he was already doing with The Roots.
"He sent me a batch of beats and they all just felt so close to something Roots-centric," Thought noted. "At the time, I was trying to sort of step outside of what I'd done in The Roots and I just didn't feel like we were lining up." Thought theorizes that he scared Cole off when he messaged him back and asked for a different batch of instrumentals. "I think I scared him off," he explained. "Maybe like some of the trigger words I was using: 'I want something hard.'" Thought and J. Cole have yet to officially collaborate, but hopefully they get lined up at some point in the future.