This better come out. I don't want no 'Living Single' bullshyt like Big Sean pulled.
i heard its smino and j.i.d. collab
Dreamville- Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 (Discussion Thread)
- Thread starter BK The Great
- Start date
i heard its smino and j.i.d. collab
That title track was one of my favorites from Cole, back in 2014. I didn't ever hear the second one.
Not true, the second dropped in Dec. 15, and "Night Job" was a track I played a lot
Not true, the second dropped in Dec. 15, and "Night Job" was a track I played a lot
Last edited:
BK The Great
Veteran
snippet of Cole
Guvnor
Da Speculative Spectacle®
Cole heating up like that left over Lasagna! He aiming back for the charts with this one.
BK The Great
Veteran
He cleared up his IG, might be preparing to drop
Cole (@realcoleworld) • Instagram photos and videos
Cole (@realcoleworld) • Instagram photos and videos
The Up Right Man
All Star
Got my pillow and blanket ready.
BK The Great
Veteran
T-Minus on production 
hope it’s good
hope it’s good
Banger
BK The Great
Veteran
It’s Dropping in April
BK The Great
Veteran
BK The Great
Veteran
Dreamville Records is done watching the throne. With an undeniable momentum, J. Cole's clan is staking its claim as hip-hop's No. 1 collective. Sleep at your own peril.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of XXL magazine, on stands now.
From its sterile brown brick exterior and retro beige wooden paneling, Atlanta’s Tree Sound Studios—tucked behind a thicket of trees off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard—could pass for a post office. Or a governmental administrative building. Or maybe even a retirement home. But on this cold early Tuesday morning in January, the unassuming recording complex is home base for J. Cole’s Dreamville Records. It’s the final day of what’s been affectionately dubbed “rap camp”: 10 consecutive days, or 240 straight hours, of recording sessions that have placed Cole’s crew (made up of Bas, Cozz, J.I.D, EarthGang, Lute, Omen and singer Ari Lennox) and their lengthy guestlist of music’s elites at the center of hip-hop’s consciousness. The Super Friends-like union is primarily for the purpose of creating Revenge of the Dreamers III, a Dreamville compilation that became hotly anticipated upon its formal announcement just a week earlier.
Behind the one-way mirrored doors, is a modern, homely, sprawling studio that houses a legion of music creatives, industry folks and other notables that run the gamut of celebrity. Rappers with SoundCloud play counts in the hundreds rub shoulders with certified stars like Ski Mask The Slump God. Two days earlier, NBA all-star Giannis Antetokounmpo and members of his Milwaukee Bucks team lounged in a hangout area adjacent to the studio kitchen, watching highlights from their 133-144 victory over the hometown Hawks. Meanwhile, FOMO-stricken fans across social media have tuned into Instagram broadcasts and Twitter threads from those in attendance, desperate for an inside-look at hip-hop’s first thrilling moment of the new year.
J. Cole has been long-awaiting this kind of attention for the record label that he conceptualized more than a decade ago—before his platinum plaques became a meme, before signing with Jay-Z, before the dreads. For the most part, his Dreamville recruits aren’t what you’d expect from a collective looking to become hip-hop’s supreme team. They aren’t overly flashy or egotistical. They don’t fit into trite archetypes like trap king or sexualized femme fatale. Instead, J. Cole assembled a label keen on everyman lyrics (Bas), heartwarming soul (Ari Lennox) or eccentric musical aesthetics (EarthGang). While its members hail from different corners of the country, they’re bonded by a standard of artistic quality and authenticity seen across Cole’s own solid solo catalog
“We just a new and unique incarnation.” Cole says. “Hopefully we add to the great lineage of rap labels.” He’s reclined on a soft brown leather sofa, sporting a blue denim jacket over a black T-shirt, with gray sweats and retro Air Jordan 1 sneakers on his feet. The sound of an eerie, flute-accented, Cole-produced beat wafts in from the neighboring room. It’s unclear whether his eyes are red due to his repeated rubbing, or simply because it’s 4:30 a.m. and the lanky rap star is hitting a wall. Still, when J.I.D pops in to share news of an in-progress collaboration (“Me and Vince [Staples] making some crazy shyt,” he reports), Cole insists he’ll stop by the room to drop some vocals. “It’s the second to last night so I’m just going to take it to the [limit].”
J. Cole’s momentum is perhaps as powerful as it’s ever been. Last year, his fifth solo album, KOD, broke first-day streaming records on both Apple Music and Spotify platforms (he was overtaken by Drake’s Scorpion months later). Cole continued to make his presence felt with a series of sterling guest contributions to tracks by the likes of 6lack, Anderson .Paak and 21 Savage, each verse topping the previous cameo. A week after these sessions, he’ll drop his much-hyped single “Middle Child,” on which Cole contemplates his place in an artform where his prophytes (Jay-Z) and neophytes (Lil Pump) are both thriving.
Cole aside, Dreamville has been making waves of its own. Last year, Cozz and Bas dropped well-received albums (Effected and Milky Way, respectively) while J.I.D accepted XXL Freshman honors before dropping his own heater (DiCaprio 2). Dreamville Festival, set to take place in April in Raleigh, N.C., will anchor releases by the label’s rising stars, including the aforementioned compilation album. “Dreamville the squad—we going up this year,” Cozz says confidently. “Best believe it.”
Get to know the members of Dreamville, hip-hop’s next juggernaut.
XXL: Not every artist has the ambition to start a label. Why was it important for you to launch Dreamville Records?
J. Cole: This is something I wanted before I was even signed. I had the whole label name: Dreamville. I remember when I came up with it I told R.J., I told Ib[rahim Hamad]. We were walking through Manhattan. I had the concept back then and I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was because that’s how Jay[-Z] did it, how Ruff Ryders did it. Then me being 22, 23 years old saying, “I want to do that, too.”
Having your own label was a mark of success.
Exactly. The past fukking five or six years, it’s become like, I’m responsible—I owe it to these artists, to the fans of these artists. I’ve got to pop this shyt off to give them the best shot to have sustainable careers doing this shyt because this is my family now. I love these people and I’m a big fan of them. I really believe in their talent.
The entire roster has been put in the spotlight thanks to the recording sessions for the compilation album, Revenge of the Dreamers III, which brought together music creatives both well-known and still-rising.
Yes. Hell yeah. It’s like a super-collaborative environment—inviting, welcoming. That’s taken me time to learn. I’ve just started learning that lesson about four years ago [with 2014] Forest Hills Drive. Let me listen more. Let me allow people into this world. That came from Bas. Watching Bas work on his first couple albums was inspiring to me ’cause he’s a super-collaborative artist. He’s a nikka that needs people—the producer, the musician, ideas. I was always from a position like, I don’t need nobody. But that way was only good for so long. It got boring after a while for me. So, watching Bas was really inspiring. It allowed me to be a person that could foster this type of environment for myself and for others, where it’s like, “You got an idea, nikka? Hell yeah, throw that shyt on there.”
You’ve been known to be hands on with your production. Was it an adjustment to relinquish some of that control during these sessions?
Me and T-Minus been locked in for months. I don’t even want to make beats no more unless I’m working with T-Minus and I just want to add some shyt or help. But, for at least the next month or two, I don’t even want to make no beats. I just want to rap. For the first time I’ve been able to focus on that for the most part.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of XXL magazine, on stands now.
From its sterile brown brick exterior and retro beige wooden paneling, Atlanta’s Tree Sound Studios—tucked behind a thicket of trees off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard—could pass for a post office. Or a governmental administrative building. Or maybe even a retirement home. But on this cold early Tuesday morning in January, the unassuming recording complex is home base for J. Cole’s Dreamville Records. It’s the final day of what’s been affectionately dubbed “rap camp”: 10 consecutive days, or 240 straight hours, of recording sessions that have placed Cole’s crew (made up of Bas, Cozz, J.I.D, EarthGang, Lute, Omen and singer Ari Lennox) and their lengthy guestlist of music’s elites at the center of hip-hop’s consciousness. The Super Friends-like union is primarily for the purpose of creating Revenge of the Dreamers III, a Dreamville compilation that became hotly anticipated upon its formal announcement just a week earlier.
Behind the one-way mirrored doors, is a modern, homely, sprawling studio that houses a legion of music creatives, industry folks and other notables that run the gamut of celebrity. Rappers with SoundCloud play counts in the hundreds rub shoulders with certified stars like Ski Mask The Slump God. Two days earlier, NBA all-star Giannis Antetokounmpo and members of his Milwaukee Bucks team lounged in a hangout area adjacent to the studio kitchen, watching highlights from their 133-144 victory over the hometown Hawks. Meanwhile, FOMO-stricken fans across social media have tuned into Instagram broadcasts and Twitter threads from those in attendance, desperate for an inside-look at hip-hop’s first thrilling moment of the new year.
J. Cole has been long-awaiting this kind of attention for the record label that he conceptualized more than a decade ago—before his platinum plaques became a meme, before signing with Jay-Z, before the dreads. For the most part, his Dreamville recruits aren’t what you’d expect from a collective looking to become hip-hop’s supreme team. They aren’t overly flashy or egotistical. They don’t fit into trite archetypes like trap king or sexualized femme fatale. Instead, J. Cole assembled a label keen on everyman lyrics (Bas), heartwarming soul (Ari Lennox) or eccentric musical aesthetics (EarthGang). While its members hail from different corners of the country, they’re bonded by a standard of artistic quality and authenticity seen across Cole’s own solid solo catalog
“We just a new and unique incarnation.” Cole says. “Hopefully we add to the great lineage of rap labels.” He’s reclined on a soft brown leather sofa, sporting a blue denim jacket over a black T-shirt, with gray sweats and retro Air Jordan 1 sneakers on his feet. The sound of an eerie, flute-accented, Cole-produced beat wafts in from the neighboring room. It’s unclear whether his eyes are red due to his repeated rubbing, or simply because it’s 4:30 a.m. and the lanky rap star is hitting a wall. Still, when J.I.D pops in to share news of an in-progress collaboration (“Me and Vince [Staples] making some crazy shyt,” he reports), Cole insists he’ll stop by the room to drop some vocals. “It’s the second to last night so I’m just going to take it to the [limit].”
J. Cole’s momentum is perhaps as powerful as it’s ever been. Last year, his fifth solo album, KOD, broke first-day streaming records on both Apple Music and Spotify platforms (he was overtaken by Drake’s Scorpion months later). Cole continued to make his presence felt with a series of sterling guest contributions to tracks by the likes of 6lack, Anderson .Paak and 21 Savage, each verse topping the previous cameo. A week after these sessions, he’ll drop his much-hyped single “Middle Child,” on which Cole contemplates his place in an artform where his prophytes (Jay-Z) and neophytes (Lil Pump) are both thriving.
Cole aside, Dreamville has been making waves of its own. Last year, Cozz and Bas dropped well-received albums (Effected and Milky Way, respectively) while J.I.D accepted XXL Freshman honors before dropping his own heater (DiCaprio 2). Dreamville Festival, set to take place in April in Raleigh, N.C., will anchor releases by the label’s rising stars, including the aforementioned compilation album. “Dreamville the squad—we going up this year,” Cozz says confidently. “Best believe it.”
Get to know the members of Dreamville, hip-hop’s next juggernaut.
XXL: Not every artist has the ambition to start a label. Why was it important for you to launch Dreamville Records?
J. Cole: This is something I wanted before I was even signed. I had the whole label name: Dreamville. I remember when I came up with it I told R.J., I told Ib[rahim Hamad]. We were walking through Manhattan. I had the concept back then and I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was because that’s how Jay[-Z] did it, how Ruff Ryders did it. Then me being 22, 23 years old saying, “I want to do that, too.”
Having your own label was a mark of success.
Exactly. The past fukking five or six years, it’s become like, I’m responsible—I owe it to these artists, to the fans of these artists. I’ve got to pop this shyt off to give them the best shot to have sustainable careers doing this shyt because this is my family now. I love these people and I’m a big fan of them. I really believe in their talent.
The entire roster has been put in the spotlight thanks to the recording sessions for the compilation album, Revenge of the Dreamers III, which brought together music creatives both well-known and still-rising.
Yes. Hell yeah. It’s like a super-collaborative environment—inviting, welcoming. That’s taken me time to learn. I’ve just started learning that lesson about four years ago [with 2014] Forest Hills Drive. Let me listen more. Let me allow people into this world. That came from Bas. Watching Bas work on his first couple albums was inspiring to me ’cause he’s a super-collaborative artist. He’s a nikka that needs people—the producer, the musician, ideas. I was always from a position like, I don’t need nobody. But that way was only good for so long. It got boring after a while for me. So, watching Bas was really inspiring. It allowed me to be a person that could foster this type of environment for myself and for others, where it’s like, “You got an idea, nikka? Hell yeah, throw that shyt on there.”
You’ve been known to be hands on with your production. Was it an adjustment to relinquish some of that control during these sessions?
Me and T-Minus been locked in for months. I don’t even want to make beats no more unless I’m working with T-Minus and I just want to add some shyt or help. But, for at least the next month or two, I don’t even want to make no beats. I just want to rap. For the first time I’ve been able to focus on that for the most part.