Last night, J. Cole made a plea to Ye during his co-headlining set with Drake at the Dreamville Music Festival. The North Carolina native, who put the event together in Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park, requested that the artist formerly known as Kanye West clear a sample for his early-career hit, “Villematic.”
“Shout out to Kanye West,” Cole said after performing the song for the first time in over a decade. “Please clear the sample for me, my brother. I appreciate it.”
The Dreamville head honcho has been trying to release his breakthrough mixtape, Friday Night Lights, but hasn’t yet received the green light from the artists he sampled. The 20-track project dropped in 2010 and put Cole on the map, generating more than a million downloads on DatPiff and helping him land a deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
“Villematic,” which borrows the “Devil in a New Dress” beat from Ye’s landmark record, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was arguably one of the most remarkable tracks off the mixtape. Yet, in all these years, it has never been available on music streaming platforms.
Listen to “Villematic” by J. Cole
On the ten-year anniversary of Friday Night Lights, Cole shared the following message on Instagram: “My dream is to one day have this on DSP’s where it belongs.”
However, the process isn’t as simple as it seems. The two artists in question have had a rocky past, ranging from Cole taking (what many believe to be) subliminal shots at Ye on “False Prophets” and “Middle Child” to the latter demanding an apology from the Fayetteville MC.
Listen to “False Prophets” by J. Cole
As of late, though, it appears they are on better terms. Last year, before Ye’s fall from grace for making antisemitic remarks and dismissing the Black Lives Matter movement, the two showed love for one another on social media.
When Ye’s jeen-yuhs docuseries was released on Netflix early last year, Cole posted the following message on Instagram: “Thank you for this @kanyewest @coodierock phenomenal vulnerable powerful sad inspirational insightful wonderful masterful. Grateful to have watched.” Ye then shared a screenshot of the post on his own page and captioned it, “That’s love family.”
If their relationship remains as it was last February, then we have a reason to hope for the best and expect Friday Night Lights to hit streaming soon.
Featured image photo by Simon Chasalow
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