Earlier this week, Tony Yayo explained how he had brought J. Cole to 50 Cent when Cole was still unsigned.
"I was on J. Cole early," said Yayo. "When J. Cole was in 50’s crib, he was in the basement, playing ‘Simba’ before he was signed to Jay ... That’s one of my talents is finding the next ones. It’s easy.”
However, 50 didn't sign Cole. He explained why not during a chat with The Breakfast Club.
“That was so early bro, this was before…at that point I don’t think we had a lot of representation on the street end, like we were the representation ... to me J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar these artists existed early on when I fell in love with hip-hop. But it was Talib Kweli, Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest, Common [Sense]…as dope as they are, they’re smarter rap. Smarter music. The logic, sit down and be humble. We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there it's almost the conscious side of it. That [J. Cole] was cool but I didn't really know that everybody was ready for it.
Was that a good call at the time?