J. Cole revealed that it took him a long time to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation: ‘he’s very selective in choosing talented people’

J. Cole says he’s “grateful” for the experience of paying Jay-Z to get his masters, rapping in a new snippet that “business is business.”

The snippet in question is tucked in around the six-minute mark in the latest volume of the two-time Grammy winner’s Might Delete Later video series. In the clip, Cole points to his success as a Roc Nation artist and reflects on having “paid dues” earlier in his career, like so:

Also in the latest video update from Cole, who recently told fans he’s “at the tail end” of working on a new album, he briefly discusses initially signing with Jay. Per Cole, Jay told him they would not be releasing a project under that deal until he “got some fuckιng hits.” As Cole recalled, this challenge later led to him becoming “suρer-powerful” as an artist. See more above.

Cole signed with Roc Nation in 2009. In an interview with Damien Scott for Complex that year, Cole detailed his initial meeting with Jay for which he was “nervous as sҺit.” A mere three weeks after that meeting, Cole said at the time, he received official word that Jay wаnted to make a deal with him.

Meanwhile, the topic of master recordings, though long considered a crucial part of the larger debate surrounding record label practices, has taken on even greater relevance in recent years. This is thanks, in large part, to Taylor Swift’s much-discussed strategy of re-recording prior albums as a “fucƙ you,” of sorts, to those who own her masters.