J. Cole Says Kendrick Lamar Was Supposed To Appear On 'The Fall-Off'

J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar would've reunited on his album The Fall-Off if Cole had his way.

In a fresh clip REVOLT released ahead of Cam'ron's interview with Cole, the Dreamville co-founder shared his initial reactions after he heard Kendrick Lamar's verse on Future and Metro Boomin's explosive song "Like That" in 2024. Cole said he thought Dot's verse and beat were undeniably hard at first, but then he immediately thought about the ramifications of Lamar's vicious verse, especially since he had just toured with Drake and collaborated with K.Dot.

"My second reaction is like 'No, n***a," Cole said. "This is inconvenient for me."

"Right at that time, I had just got off tour with Drake," he explained. "I had went on tour with Drake. We did that and I had Might Delete Later in the chamber, which is the project you're on as a mixtape. I had The Fall-Off finished. I probably had to tweak a couple mixes, boom boom boom, but I had this album finished."

"Let me tell you something else," he continued. "At that time, I had been working on The Fall-Off, which was done and by the way, somebody leaked it. I know who leaked it, who said it. But it's cool, he put it out there it's like yo he was on two joints."

Fans had been craving a reunion between J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar for well over a decade. The two have collaborated on several tracks over the years and reportedly worked on a joint album. The 39-year-old artist revisited his first studio session with K.Dot where they created concepts for unreleased songs like "Temptation" and "Shock The World" during his "Inevitable" limited audio series in 2024. Towards the end of the conversation, Cole debuted the CD-quality version of both tracks for the first time. He also explained why the duo ultimately scrapped their idea for a collaborative project.

"Time and life," Cole said. "We ain’t ever got the chance to go in and do it correctly, because that would take time, bro. 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."

Watch Cam'ron's anticipated interview with J. Cole on REVOLT's YouTube at 5 p.m.