J. Cole has released two unreleased tracks he recorded with Kendrick Lamar, titled “Temptation” and “Shock the World.”
These songs were shared as part of Cole’s newly launched audio series, Inevitable, where he reflects on his past albums and mixtapes. In this series, the Dreamville artist played these collaborations, which were created in 2010.
During the episode, Cole described “Temptation” as “insane” and recalled sending beats to Kendrick (aka K.Dot) when they were both emerging artists.
“Shock the World” also features vocals by BJ The Chicago Kid.
J. Cole played he and Kendrick Lamar’s “Temptation” and “Shock The World” on episode four of his audio series ‘Inevitable’
Cole has already dropped ‘The Come Up’ and ‘The Warm Up’ on DSPs throughout the series… could these be on streaming next?pic.twitter.com/hHULXOResI
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) November 26, 2024
When describing his first meeting with Kendrick, Cole recalled: “It was early 2010 in L.A. at a U-N-I release party […] I remember seeing him on stage and he spit a verse, and I was like, ‘Yo, this n-gga right here is nice!’
“So he got off stage and I let him know like, ‘Bro, I fuck with you. You hard as fuck.’ He was like, ‘Yo, I met you! I was at the [2010] XXL Freshmen cover shoot [with Jay Rock].’”
He continued: “So we stayed in touch every now and then, and he sent me some joints. When I dropped ‘Blow Up,’ I remember him hitting me like, ‘N-gga, I need one of those!’ He was talking about how crazy the beat was.
“When I was out in L.A., he came by No ID‘s studio and I linked with him […] I played him the beat for ‘HiiiPoWeR,’ I played him ‘Temptation’ with my verse on it, I played him a couple of other joints that had one verse on it.
“When I played them for him, I was like, ‘Bro, you can have these if you want.’ I remember he said — and it always stuck with me ’cause I had never heard nobody say this to me before — he was looking at me like, ‘N-gga, are you sure you want to give me these?!’
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, go ahead, take them.’ He was like, ‘Bro, you sleeping on yourself.’ It struck me because it was actually the stone cold truth of my reality at that time. I was so focused on getting this unicorn hit for my album that I was actually sleeping on the shit that I did well.
Cole did not specify which projects the songs were initially meant for or why they were never officially released. However, both tracks were previously performed by Kendrick during an in-store appearance around 2011 or 2012.
It is unclear if Cole plans to upload “Temptation” and “Shock the World” to streaming services, as he has done with his mixtapes The Come Up and The Warm Up recently.
Before their recent dispute, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar were considered close, and at one point, a collaborative album was in the works.
In an interview with Lil Yachty on his A Safe Space podcast last year, Cole spoke about the album that never materialized.
“[Kendrick Lamar] had pulled up on me at No ID’s spot […] In that moment, we talked about, ‘Yo, bro, we should do a project.’ At that time he’s not on like that, but I’m fuckin’ with him,” he said.
“At one point, it was a real thing. But bro, time and life, we ain’t ever got the chance to go in and do it correctly because that would take time. For us to do something that’s full of our potential, that meets our real potential, you’re gonna need time. At least a year.
“When you got two successful artists with lives and families, that’s hard to do. We put it to bed years ago. But at one point in time, it was a real conversation, for sure. It’s not like it’s a ton of songs. It’s not like it’s some album sitting on the shelf somewhere.”
