It’s been a decade since Bas’ released his first mixtape Quarter Water Raised Vol. 1., which he created music with help from J. Cole, who served as a mentor of sorts before they joined forces on the Dreamville imprint. That year was also when Cole released his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, after signing to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label. During a recent conversation with HipHopDX, Bas recalled the first time he met Jay-Z, which occurred during a studio session with Cole.
“I’ve been in some rooms with Cole, where he was working with some people,” he said. “Then I did Revenge Of The Dreamers [III], where we had half the industry in the studio. You know what I mean? But the first time Hov pulled up to a Cole session, I was pretty star-struck. I can’t lie. I grew up on Hov.”
He added, “That was probably like 2011, 2010. It was the very early, early Cole days. I just said, ‘What’s up?’ He’s real cool. Hov’s mad down to Earth. Super down to Earth. But at that point, I didn’t know that about him. I just know him from what I seen.”
He concluded, “Since then, I just know that’s how he is. He’s just a chill dude.”
Bas also spoke about hitting the road for live concerts in the near future after spending more than a year at home due to the pandemic. “I’m super excited to get back on the road,” he said. “I miss it a lot. You got to find the pros and cons to it. Obviously, shows were taken from us and just human interaction in general. The adventure of life was also kind of taken away. Things got real settled, but there’s pros to that, too.”
You can read Bas’ full interview with HipHopDX here.