J. Cole says he can relate to these guys more than anyone else
J. Cole explains how his competitive mentality has impacted his relationship with fellow hip-hop heavyweights, Drake and Kendrick Lamar over the past years. In a new The ETCs interview, Cole detailed his desire to be able to connect and work with the two famed artists.
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Conversing with co-hosts Kevin Durant and Eddie Gonzalez, Cole stated, “these are the guys that push you, and you gotta push them,” Cole said. “I was so competitive early on that, like, even though we were all friends, I’ve never been a reach out. I’ve never been that person, especially when it’s competition involved.”
“It’s almost like working out together. ‘Why would I work out with this nigga? I’m trying to destroy this nigga.’ That was kind of my mentality early on,” he went on to explain. “But as I’ve gotten older, I realize that no one is truly my peer or can relate to what I’m going through in life more than these people right here – just in terms of whatever pressures there might be… Nobody can really relate to that like these dudes, and I really genuinely fuck with these dudes.”
“I’m more interested in the genuine relationship,” Cole told “The ETCs” podcast. “Before I was interested in the competition. Before I was just interested in putting pressure or responding to pressure… It’s just less competition in my mind ’cause niggas is old, bro.”
“It was always a respect thing,” he added. “Now it’s just more of a wisdom thing where it’s like, ‘Yo, you can never have it all.’”
