For his most recent (and unconventional) release, “Procrastination (Broke),” a surprise song by J. Cole, he delved into the area of “type beats” listen to it below.
The song was uploaded on YouTube late on Wednesday (January 18) by Bvtman, a nearly unheard-of producer from Brooklyn, New York, instead of being released through Cole’s official channels on Spotify and Apple Music.
The Roc Nation rap artist was searching for inspiration one day when he stumbled across the producer’s music on YouTube while searching for “J. Cole style rhythm,” as is stated on the song’s cover art, which is a screenshot of a message the Dreamville CEO sent to Bvtman.
After writing some lyrics to the beat, Cole made the decision to release the song onto the world rather than keeping it hidden away in his vault as a way to thank Bvtman and the other producers.
“This song should live on your channel and serve as a thank you to you and every producer out there cooking up and sharing their work with the world,” Cole wrote in the message. “It’s a million artists out there right now just like me, hungry and searching every day for something to spark a word, a melody, a hook, a verse, a punchline, a way to vent, or a way to CUT THROUGH.
“On a day when I couldn’t find much motivation, I was looking for anything to inspire me. Out of curiosity, I typed in ‘J. Cole type beat’ into YouTube. Yours was the first I saw. I pressed play, focused, and wrote this. This is some shit that would normally stay in the vault, but I don’t want to hold onto the music like that no more.”
He added: “This is for you and whoever else needs to hear it. God bless bro and keep doing what you do!”
In an Instagram post, Bvtman provided additional context for the song’s background by disclosing that J. Cole’s longtime manager, Ibrahim “IB” Hamad, had texted him out of the blue to let him know that Cole enjoyed his music. It goes without saying that the producer was astonished.
