J. Cole Shares How Much Jay-Z’s “Villematic” Co-Sign Meant to Him

Following the arrival of Friday Night Lights on streaming services, J. Cole revisited what it meant to him when Jay-Z showed love for his track “Villematic.”

On the latest episode of Cole’s limited audio series Inevitable, Cole spoke at length about his breakthrough mixtape Friday Night Lights. “Villematic,” a fan favorite that features Cole freestyling over Kanye West’s “Devil in a New Dress,” received a big co-sign from Jay-Z, who signed Cole to Roc Nation in 2009.

“The reaction that I got from Jay on this song—he didn’t hit me or nothing, but we were at that Yankee Stadium show,” he said, referring to Hov and Eminem’s big show at the Yankee Stadium in September, 2010. Cole said that even though he was signed to Jay-Z’s label at the time, it would still be “rare” for him to see him.

“I always was like, ‘This is somebody I idolize and really respect, but I still want to do it on my own,'” said Cole, stressing that he wanted to be seen “as a peer” by Jay-Z . Cole’s manager Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad added, “You made it a point to be like, ‘I’m not gonna bother this n***a.'”

When backstage at the show, which also featured guest appearances from the likes of Drake and Dr. Dre among others, he bumped into Jay-Z leaving the artist lounge. “He was like, ‘Cole! Yo, my n***a,'” Cole shared. “I’ll never forget it ’cause he said it like this… ‘That ‘Villematic?’ He called it ‘Vill-er-matic. He said, ‘Woo! That’s my favorite joint I ever heard from you.’ That was a moment for me.”

“Villematic” was released shortly before the Yankee Stadium show, and later appeared as part of the Friday Night Lights mixtape. Upon the streaming debut of the project this week, Cole said it was “a very special moment” for him to have the mixtape widely accessible finally.

“I wanna say Thank you to everybody out there that kept these projects alive, even during all the years they were not on streaming services, especially this project right here,” Cole wrote on social media. Many of the tracks from the project were originally intended for his debut album, but due to a lack of support from the label he put together Friday Night Lights.