On June 18, 2013, J. Cole and Kanye West went to war on the charts to see which of their new albums would go No. 1. Turns out, they both won.
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For West, his sixth studio album, Yeezus, was his first full-length release since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy three years prior, which is still widely considered one of the best hip-hop albums of the 2010s. To follow this up, just as he’s done with most albums in his career, West re-invented his sound and his approach.
Rather than the incredibly polished, lyrical clinic of MBDTF, West conjured up a raw, techno-inspired LP with Yeezus. With already four No. 1 albums and four Grammy awards for Best Rap Album, West was in a stage of his career where he could experiment and still achieve success.
For Cole, although his debut album from two years before went No. 1, he was still a relatively fresh and hungry act in hip-hop. Hoping to avoid a sophomore slump and continue growing his fanbase, Born Sinner could have been a sole moment in the spotlight for Cole, especially since it was originally slated to drop a week after Yeezus. But, with his uniquely strong competitive nature, he decided to challenge West.
“I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album,” Cole said in an interview with Billboard a month before Yeezus and Born Sinner‘s release. “It’d be like, ‘Oh and J.Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn’t even a thought.”
Along with voicing his stance in interviews like these, Cole also doubled down in his music, evident in the lyrics of Born Sinner‘s eleventh track “Forbidden Fruit.”
I’ma drop the album same day as Kanye
Just to show the Boyz the man now like Wanyá
And I don’t mean no disrespect, I praise legends
But this what’s next, the boy sick, can’t disinfect
Eventually, although Born Sinner contained hits like “Power Trip” with Miguel, “Crooked Smile” with TLC, and its title track, Yeezus would be the one to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 327,000 units sold. West’s LP, full of brash bangers like “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves,” would hold onto the top spot the next week as well, with Cole’s Born Sinner lurking at No. 2.
In the album’s third week out, though, Cole finally accomplished his goal. Born Sinner hit No. 1 three weeks post-release, selling 58,000 copies (297,000 in its first week). To this day, the LP serves as one of Cole’s greatest accomplishments of his career, as he refused to back down from the rap titan that was Kanye West.
Although the two collaborated once in 2010 on “Looking for Trouble,” also featuring Pusha T and Big Sean, Cole and West have not worked together since that special day in 2013. However, in April this year at Dreamville Fest, Cole pleaded with West to clear a sample for him so that he could re-release an old mixtape where he raps over West’s MBDTF hit, “Devil in a New Dress.” To our knowledge, West has yet to respond to Cole’s request.
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