NEWS
J. Cole has said that his album 2014 Forest Hills Drive was a “championship” level experience, despite it losing out at the Grammys.
The comments were made during an extensive interview with Bob Myers, GM of the Golden State Warriors, where Cole compared his triple-platinum 2014 project to the feeling of winning an NBA championship.
“Had I won it early on, I feel like it would have validated all of those feelings I had for it,” said Cole, whose sole Grammys win came in 2020 for Best Rap Song (“A Lot”). “Maybe it would have felt like a championship at that point, I’m not sure. The fact that it didn’t happen, and that it didn’t happen, and that it didn’t happen, it allowed me to reflect.”
He continued: “After more time with sitting with myself, it becomes clear that, ‘Oh, wait a minute, those things weren’t for you.’ And then when it actually came, it was almost like, ‘I’m not in love with this thing anymore.’ So it couldn’t feel like a championship.
“But I think this will answer your question a little better: that’s nowhere close to a championship for me, the Grammy, but there was an album that felt like a championship. The making of this album I got called Forest Hills Drive, and the releasing of it and the tour, that was a championship run in the way that how the Bulls look at The Last Dance.”
He concluded: “The fact that it didn’t win didn’t change my experience. That was what a championship felt like to me.”
2014 Forest Hills Drive was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Kendrick Lamar’s critically lauded effort To Pimp a Butterfly. Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint and Dr. Dre’s Compton were also in contention that year.
Nevertheless, 2014 Forest Hills Drive marked a new commercial peak for J. Cole and remains one of his most beloved albums. Following its surprise release in December 2014, it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with over 350,000 first-week sales — his highest tally up to that point.
The album has never left the chart since then and currently sits at No. 50 after a staggering 432 weeks. Meanwhile, “No Role Modelz” made Spotify history last April after becoming the longest-running song on the U.S. Spotify chart.
2014 Forest Hills Drive achieved 3x platinum certification from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in May 2019 and kickstarted the “J. Cole Went Platinum With No Features” meme.
Looking ahead, the Dreamville boss is rumored to be working on his eagerly anticipated next album, The Fall Off. Cole first teased the project back in 2020, but only recently has begun to drop more hints about its arrival.
“And I still relate to that procrastination for tasks/ ‘Cause I need to finish this album/ But hell, how many more times/ Can I send this wooden pail down in that well/ And pull it back up with the hope that it’s filled?” he rapped on “Procrastination (Broke),” the loose song borrowing a YouTube producer’s beat he dropped in January.
On “Adonis Interlude (The Montage),” his Dr. Dre-sampling contribution to Dreamville’s recently released Creed III soundtrack, he spit: “Just cop ‘The Fall Off’ and he’ll explain/ Is it the end of the chapter? Happily ever after?/ Bet this gon’ be the year that fulfill his reign, man.”
Lizzo has made it clear that she never abandoned her album Love in Real Life.
The “Juice” artist recently responded to rumors that the project had been cancelled after fans expected it to arrive last year. Rather than putting out the album at the time, Lizzo instead released the mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling in June.
During a new conversation with Billboard, the “Truth Hurts” singer explained that the album itself was never scrapped and is still the same body of work she plans to release on June 5 under its new title, B**ch.
“I think the biggest misconception about my album is that I shelved Love in Real Life when I didn't,” she said. “(B**ch) is technically the same album. I just changed the name. The music is the same.”
Lizzo shared that the main difference between the earlier version of the project and the upcoming release was taking away the original title track, which eventually led to the album being renamed.
“When you change the name of something, it changes its destiny,” the singer explained. “Like, when I went from Melissa to Lizzo, it changed my destiny.”
“When this album went from Love in Real Life to Bch, it changed the trajectory of its past,” she continued. “I do think that I feel like I can express myself the way that I want to express myself right now through Bch. I think Love in Real Life was really sombre and a little bit more introspective, and I think B**ch is a little bit more empowered and self actualised and bold.”
Before the newly titled album arrives, Lizzo has already released the singles B**ch and Don’t Make Me Love U.
The artist had previously spoken about stepping away from Love in Real Life during an earlier interview with Vulture, saying the project “just wasn't what I was feeling right now”.
She also mentioned that much of the album had originally been written back in 2022.
“By 2025, I've changed, the world has changed so much, and so much has happened,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to do s**t differently, and I don't know what it is, but I'm going to just start following my instincts.’”
