J. Cole Shared an Awkward Moment with Jay-Z and Drake

Kendrick Lamar and SZA are back on road starting next April in Minneapolis. In other news: 

• Billboard Hot 100 📈

• J. Cole doesn’t need a hit record from Drake 👀

• Roddy Ricch says he was almost extorted for his lost Grammy 🏆

• Industry Insights 🔎

Billboard Hot 100

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking for this week. The Hot 100 ranks songs based on streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate.

Songs from Kendrick Lamar’s newest album, GNX, took over this week’s chart, with the project also debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “squabble up” marked Kendrick’s third No. 1 single of 2024, making him the first hip-hop artist in Hot 100 history to achieve this.

J. Cole Recalls Cringe-Worthy Moment With Jay-Z and Drake 

On his new podcast Inevitable, J. Cole has been dropping insider information about his career and overall rap game left and right. He showed love to Ye and spoke about how he inspired him (even though the Chicago rapper has thrown recent shade at him).

He has played unreleased music with the people’s champ, K. Dot. Now, he is getting back into his storytime bag and discussing an interesting proposition Drizzy received from Jay-Z in 2011. 

J. Cole wasn’t feeling Jay-Z

Everything went down while the Dreamville rapper and his manager, Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad, were at Lebron James’ Two Kings Dinner at the 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend. While Cole was a known name in the mixtape world, he still hadn’t had that one song that put him on the mainstream map from Jay-Z’s POV. As everyone was talking with one another, J. Cole said that HOVA asked Drake to give him a smash hit. 

“We having a conversation. Me, Cole, Drake, Future [The Prince]. I don’t know who else, but there were a couple more people,” Ib said. “So then Jay walks in, and he sees all of us together. He goes, ‘Yo.’ And he looks at Drake and he says, ‘Give the boy one!’ Points at Cole, like, basically give him a hit. We’re all like, ‘What?’ I even remember Future’s face being like, ‘That’s embarrassing,” Cole said.

He continued by stating how he was pissed about the situation, with HOVA “looking at Drake and pointing at me and going, ‘Give him a hit — give my boy a hit.'”

Even Hamad remembers “being at the dinner after that, and I’m just looking at Cole, and he looks pissed,” he said. 

Months before Jay-Z killed the vibe, J. Cole and Drake already collaborated on the 2011 track “In the Morning” (which peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart) for his Friday Night Lights project. 

Since then, they released “First Person Shooter” in 2023, which ended up being J. Cole’s first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Jay-Z’s comment was prophetic 12 years later, but that doesn’t make what he said any less awkward. 

Roddy Ricch’s Grammy Ends Up in the Wrong Hands 

While the Grammys don’t always get it right, earning one is a major achievement for any artist. Compton rapper Roddy Ricch won his first Grammy back in 2020 for the song “Racks In The Middle” along with the late Nipsey Hussle and Hit-Boy. However, the rapper recently got himself into a messy situation when he had to go head-to-head with a popular social media star to get his award back. 

On November 30, social media personality Prieto Hunters posted a video on TikTok of him inside Ricch’s storage unit, where he found the award along with tons of clothes. Hunters purchased the unit for $280 dollars at an auction. Hunters is known online for purchasing abandoned storage units and showing the hidden treasures he finds inside. 

Roddy Ricch shares what went down

On Instagram Live on December 2, Ricch broke down his side of the story. 

“My personal assistant ended up getting into a near-fatal accident and had a severe brain injury. Me going back and forth to Miami, I just put my stuff in storage for safe-keeping. Him getting into that accident is how that shit got mishandled,” Ricch said, explaining how his Grammy ended up in the wrong hands.

According to the rapper, Hunters wanted a lot more than $280 to return the reward to its rightful owner. 

“First he asked me for an AP, then he asked me for $50,000 … So it was never about ‘Oh we’re going to do it on just the strength of trying to get it back to you.’ All that type of shit. It was more so about a n**** trying to get some clout off it or a n**** trying to basically extort me for $50,000,” Ricch said. 

Social media creator shares his side of the story

Hunters released a TikTok refuting these claims on December 2, saying that he never asked for money and all he wanted was a video of him returning it or a video of Ricch telling him thank you (for content purposes since he’s a creator). He also said that Ricch’s crew threatened him during their conversations (which the rapper has denied). 

“I did not ask for that and no I did not get offered none 50k all I got was threats you guys don’t know the full story I returned it at NO COST and want nothing to do with them I want no compensation from them not even tickets!,” Hunters later said in an IG comment.

Eventually, the Grammy was returned during an exchange at a California police station (with Hunters’ camera crew in tow but no Ricch). Still, people online have mixed reactions about how the situation was handled. 

• Juice WRLD has more music coming. His team asked fans on social media which other tracks should be on the deluxe version of The Party Never Ends.

• Get your Cole World fits and group chats ready. J Cole announced that the 2025 Dreamville Fest will take place the weekend of April 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

• Eminem has a new record to add to his tally. He is officially the most followed rapper on Spotify. 

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