“ A deal was never the goal for me, it was just a step. Southern roots with an east coast style, not from the streets but familiar with hardship. An anomaly.
A producer that learned to make beats because he was tired of rapping over others' subpar production. The man who stood before Jay was a passionate rapper that cared more about making good music than making good money. Cole didn’t have his swagger or the enchanting ego of a mad scientist, but reading over his old interviews from this time frame it’s clear he had a glow. I also imagine he saw the same attributes in Cole that exist in his little brother, Kanye West. I imagine Jay listening to the record and thinking it would sink in a world where Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Through The Phone” and Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” are both Billboard hits. Listening to it now I think of “Jesus Walks,” a song that challenges the accustomed and accepted. A record with zero crossover possibility it's too slow for the clubs, too intellectual for radio, a businessman would’ve dismissed it.
#JAY Z JAY ELECTRONICA FULL#
“Lights Please” is the song that leads to the first meeting, a song that showed a relationship between a young man full of angst toward the cold world and young women whose only passions are loud packs and casual sex. So what made Hova make a detour in his plans, signing a rapper more focused on making hip-hop history than dollar signs or fame? I have to believe Jay's intuition told him that this kid had that mythical “it.” He wasn’t a pop sensation or a hustler with imagination but a rapper passionate about rap, a hip-hop artist through and through. Rita Ora, Willow Smith, Calvin Harris-these are the kind of artists that fit into that mold, the kind of artist that would be eaten alive standing in the Roc-A-Fella jungle with real lions from Philly and tigers from Harlem.
There wouldn’t be any Diplomats or State Propertys he wasn’t seeking talent from the streets but voices that could reach the households he couldn’t imagine while standing on the Marcy Project blocks. Jay didn't want the resurrection of Roc-A-Fella but to recapture the success he had during his Def Jam presidency with Rihanna and Ne-Yo-on an even larger scale. Cole to Complex, circa 2009Īs Cole said in his Complex interview, after the signing was announced, Roc Nation was created to be a label focused on pop music. I think Roc Nation was just gonna be a pop label” -J. “The real thing is that they weren't going to do rap, if that tells you like my position over there. This is a story well known by fans, but I don’t know if I truly appreciated how astounding the tale is until recently, especially from Jay's perspective. Veteran A&R Mark Pitts plays one song which leads to a three-hour meeting which leads to multiple meetings (waiting, always more waiting) until eventually, Jermaine Cole was officially the first artist signed to Roc Nation. A year later, it was JAY-Z asking to meet the same kid he previously dismissed.
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