J. Cole and Lil Durk’s collaborative song “All My Life” kicked off the rollout of Durk’s new album Almost Healed. The song performed well, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. However, fans found themselves hung up on J. Cole’s reported verse fee to appear on the track.
Music blog Raphouse TV is at the head of the financial rumor. The outlet tweeted, “Lil Durk reportedly paid J. Cole $978K for his ‘All My Life’ verse, counting 489 words Cole spat. Cole reportedly charges $2K per word for the feature.” Based on Cole’s star power in the rap game, the price tag would be justifiable if it were real.
Lil Durk reportedly paid J.Cole $978K for his “All My Life” verse, counting 489 words Cole spat Cole reportedly charges $2K per word for the featurepic.twitter.com/n6cJMNNOwF
After gaining over eight million impressions, Cole’s longtime friend and manager Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad took a second to dispute the claim. According to Hamad, Raphouse TV is false or, as he put it, “Cap.”
When asked about the song’s reception, Durk admitted to Complex, “[Cole] smoked my ass on that one, for one — barely. That barely happens. But shout out to J. Cole, shout out to [Dr.] Luke, we made it happen.”
Lil Durk’s Almost Healed album had an undeniably impressive opening week after its delayed debut. Of the LP’s 21 tracks, one title in particular continues to stand out as a favourite among listeners. Before sharing his work with the world, the Chicago native offered up a teaser in the form of a single called “All My Life” with J. Cole. The collaboration has earned both lyricists immense praise from fellow industry icons and fans alike across social media. According to rumours floating around online, the Dreamville artist took home nearly $1 million for the verse he put together for Durk’s track.
Earlier this week, @raphousetv2 on Twitter alleged that the 7722 artist handed over an astounding $978K for Cole’s contribution. Breaking down the math of the transaction, for writing and spitting 489 words, the North Carolina-born star was believed to have made $2K/word for the feature. Few came out disputing the claims, especially considering how prolific Cole has become over the years, however, his manager, Ibrahim Hamad, set the record straight on Monday (June 5) afternoon.
Though Hamad didn’t reveal exactly how much Cole did make off of “All My Life,” he did use a cap emoji to indicate that the gossip is fake. It’s been a minute since the “Wet Dreamz” hitmaker gave us a solo project (his last, The Off-Season, landed in 2021) so it’s entirely possible he and Durk made a verse-for-verse arrangement, and we’ll hear the 30-year-old on his friend’s next project.
Elsewhere on his Almost Healed album, Lil Durk connected with Alicia Keys, Future, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Rob49, and country singer Morgan Wallen. He also shared a posthumous feature from Juice WRLD, who appears on track 17, “Cross The Globe.” Do you think J. Cole’s “All My Life” feature is the best work he’s done so far in 2023? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.
Lil Durk is no longer a newcomer to the hip-hop scene. In the last decade, Durk’s rose from the underground buzz of Chicago’s drill scene into one of the biggest names in music. However, in the past few years, he’s clocked in a collaborative project with Lil Baby and an iconic feature on Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” that led to his massive commercial success. He went from a high-school dropout with numerous run-ins with the law to decked-out Rolls Royces and multiple real estate properties. But despite the evolution in his life, his latest album sees him stray away from stories surrounding his lavish lifestyle. Instead, the hard reality of fatherhood and sustainability in the hip-hop industry is setting in. 7220 touched on these topics, with Durk’s crooning bars becoming the highlight of the album. However, Almost Healed does so in an even more revealing manner.
The album title gives it all away for Lil Durk’s Almost Healed. Returning a little over a year after his 2022 album 7220, the narrative focuses on the Chicago MC’s personal development, touching on how his aspirations to become a better man as a father and an artist. Ahead of the project, he released hit lead single “All My Life” with Dreamville’s J Cole. The two muse on the state of the hip-hop industry. Durk states, “I done sat with mayor and politicians, I’m tryna change the image.” Cole vehemently spits, “If you ain’t never posted a rapper when he was alive / You can’t post about him after he gets hit.” The in-depth political and street-induced themes of “All My Life” continues throughout Almost Heated.
Lil Durk Focuses On Personal Growth
Lil Durk recently eclipsed the 30-year-old mark. Therefore, he’s beginning to reflect on the trials and mistakes of his formative years. Many of his close friends who he grew up with in Chicago are still struggling to make it out, relying on crime or unemployment benefits to make ends meet. In addition, children are exposed to a world of drug addiction far before they’re able to mature. With Lil Durk throwing an ugly spotlight onto these topics, he’s looking to bring greater awareness to the struggles in Chicago. However, Almost Healed isn’t the first time Lil Durk has opted to rap about reality rather than grandiosity. It’s why the certified rap star has self-proclaimed himself as “The Voice.”
Durk takes the listener through his healing process by inscribing how he’s processing the losses of his brother DThang and close friend, King Von. With each passing within a matter of months of each other, Durk has been through a lot since the outset of the 2020s. Alicia Keys sets the stage on album opener, “Therapy Session.” The vocal icon states, “How you feel about the rap beef on top of all of the chaos? / Despite all this, you continue to be a warrior, a leader in the rap industry / And the voice in your community.”
Almost Healed also recruits artists such as 21 Savage, Kodak Black, and more. In a sense, it’s symbolic of Durk’s conscious approach to the company he keeps, whether in his personal life or in the music industry. On “Never Again,” he struggles with the notion of giving back against the melodic piano chords. Durk passionately repeats, “Think I’ma help ’em, won’t help ’em again.”
Almost Healed Has Its Highs And Lows
Almost Healed is Lil Durk’s most vulnerable project to date. However, the project falters due to its bloated track listing and sonic inconsistencies. The country-trap formula of the Morgan Wallen-aided “Stand By Me” is blatantly looking to recreate the magic of 7220’s “Broadway Girls.” It’s understandable, considering the track eclipsed 200 million streams on Spotify alone. In addition, the album’s 21-song track list makes for a tedious listen. The middle portion of Almost Healed drags both sonically and narratively. Durk’s verses begin implying personal regression rather than the healing process that the album titles suggest. This becomes most apparent on tracks such as “Before Fajr” and “War Bout It,” which contradict the more positive revelations on songs such as “All My Life.”
Even if the overall record isn’t Lil Durk’s most consistent work, tracks such as the Future-aided “Never Imagined’ make it more than worth a listen. Future’s flow is captivating, with the two demonstrating seamless chemistry throughout the track. With a sentimental beat and a melodic flow from Durk, the production complements his vocal pallet skillfully. Almost Healed sees the 30-year-old rebrand himself into a more thoughtful MC. While the singing attempts don’t always land, the nearly hour-long effort compacts the highs and lows of where Lil Durk is at both musically and personally.
Lil Durk‘s Almost Healed album is loaded. After revealing the producers, including Alicia Keys and Chopsquad DJ, Durk has revealed the tracklist and album features.
Joining Lil Durk on the album will be Future, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Juice WRLD, Morgan Wallen, Rob49, and Chief Wuk.
Lil Durk spoke with Zane Lowe about his new song on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1. He explains to Apple Music where the song came from, why J. Cole had to be on it, and what his fans can expect from his upcoming album, “Almost Healed.”
Speaking about the single, Durk reveals the inspiration came from his mood.
“Whatever mood I’m in, I just go to the studio and just make the music, you know what I’m saying?” Durk said. “I just feel like a positive vibe went up with Dr. Luke, you know what I’m saying? That’s the first song he played and I just felt it and I’m like, ‘Man, I want J. Cole On this.’ And I made it happen. I’ve been talking to him, checking up on him, just seeing how you doing. You wait for the right moment for him to ask to be on the song.”
Durk also revealed J. Cole is one of the rappers that he looks up to. “He like one that I looked up to that give out a positive message to. Him, of course, like HOV. Swizz. Yeah, Swizz got me and Hov connected, so that’s how we started talking, you know what I’m saying? It’s just about relationships, about energy, and about keeping the vibes together.”
Fans yearned for the full release of “All My Life” when Durk first teased it with a viral Instagram sample that lit up the internet. As J. Cole skillfully delivers his reflective stanza, the track’s mellow piano melody establishes the mood. Durk duets the chorus with a children’s chorus before delivering his verse.
Lil Durk spoke with Zane Lowe about his new song on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1. He explains to Apple Music where the song came from, why J. Cole had to be on it, and what his fans can expect from his upcoming album, “Almost Healed.”
Speaking about the single, Durk reveals the inspiration came from his mood.
“Whatever mood I’m in, I just go to the studio and just make the music, you know what I’m saying?” Durk said. “I just feel like a positive vibe went up with Dr. Luke, you know what I’m saying? That’s the first song he played and I just felt it and I’m like, ‘Man, I want J. Cole On this.’ And I made it happen. I’ve been talking to him, checking up on him, just seeing how you doing. You wait for the right moment for him to ask to be on the song.”
Durk also revealed J. Cole is one of the rappers that he looks up to. “He like one that I looked up to that give out a positive message to. Him, of course, like HOV. Swizz. Yeah, Swizz got me and Hov connected, so that’s how we started talking, you know what I’m saying? It’s just about relationships, about energy, and about keeping the vibes together.”
Fans yearned for the full release of “All My Life” when Durk first teased it with a viral Instagram sample that lit up the internet. As J. Cole skillfully delivers his reflective stanza, the track’s mellow piano melody establishes the mood. Durk duets the chorus with a children’s chorus before delivering his verse.
“All My Life” by J. Cole and Lil Durk has been nothing short of a success, whether as the first single to the latter’s upcoming album Almost Healed (whose tracklist and features just dropped) or as just a big moment in the hip-hop field. Moreover, the track officially debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking new commercial highs for the two. Not only is it the Chicago MC’s highest-ever debut as a lead artist, but it’s also the North Carolina lyricist’s highest-charting feature. Even if it hadn’t charted at all, it would still remain a great song with some highly praised verses. That being said, outselling rival NBA YoungBoy’s mixtape Richest Opp must be a nice cherry on top.
Furthermore, the song’s also a testament to The Voice’s versatility and to Cole’s reputation as a feature killer. Sure, Lil Durk caught some flack for saying he’s not a fan of lyrical rappers, but only said so as he gave the Dreamville MC his flowers. “Nah he went crazy,” he told RapCaviar. “I had to listen to it like four times. You know I ain’t super big on lyricist-type rappers.
“With Cole, [he] was one of the ones, like him and Jay, you gotta play them 50 times to catch what they’re saying,” Lil Durk continued. “Like, if you listen to Lil Wayne right now, and you heard some s**t ten years ago that you just catch onto today. But he definitely gave me one of them verses and I appreciate it. ‘Cause he ain’t even have to, for real. He could’ve gave us anything.” It wasn’t the first time he praised J. Cole for his contributions, and it certainly won’t be the last time that fans do.
Meanwhile, now all sights are on Almost Healed, an album that could take the “Hanging With Wolves” MC to similarly impressive commercial highs. With the production credits boasting some huge names along with features like Future and Juice WRLD, it won’t be long before it lands on May 26. Overall, he set a high bar for himself that continued his streak of artistic growth. For more news and the latest updates on Lil Durk and J. Cole, stick around on HNHH.
Jermaine Dupri took to Twitter recently, sharing his thoughts on J. Cole’s “All My Life” verse. He wrote to his followers, “Yo!!! J. Cole verse is so in the pocket on this ‘All My Life.’” Dupri also added, “I can never listen to another offbeat rapper, bible!!!” It seems as thought many would agree with Dupri’s assessment, with others such as 21 Savage recently claiming they enjoyed his work on the song as well. 21 Savage wrote about the collaboration on Twitter, saying, “Cole just went so crazy on that verse wtf.”
“All My Life” was released earlier this month, and was instantly met with praise from fans and peers. After previewing the song on May 3, many listeners felt as though the song would be a huge hit. Durk shared his intentions behind the song, telling XXL, “It’s just a rap that’s just showing you what I been going through. What I been doing lately. Trying to change how I am.” Lil Durk also shared his thoughts on Cole’s verse on his track. “He went crazy. I had to listen to it like four times,” he explained.
Durk continued, “You know I ain’t super big on lyricist-type rappers. Cole was one of them ones that, like, him and [JAY-Z], you gotta play them 50 times to catch what they’re saying.” He added, “Like, if you listen to Lil Wayne right now and you heard some shit 10 years ago that you just catch onto today. But [Cole] definitely gave me one of them verses and I appreciate it. ‘Cause he ain’t even have to, for real. He could’ve given us anything.” Durk caught some flack for his comments, with one user writing, “He’s not super big on lyrics, Lyrical Rappers……Then what is my generation of rappers doing on songs smh.” “I like Dirk’s music but cmon bro. I don’t understand why my generation doesn’t the core of what hip hop is and what is used to stand for,” they added.
J. Cole also recently announced that he plans to celebrate the 10-year-anniversary of Born Sinner by releasing a gold deluxe vinyl edition of the album. His label shared the news in an Instagram post earlier this month. The post is captioned, “Born Sinner turns 10 next month!” The caption continues, “in celebration we’re releasing a gold deluxe vinyl edition available for preorder now! #Dreamville #ColeWorld.” The post also features photos of the special gold pressing.
Lil Durk’s Almost Healed album is set to drop this Friday. After the release, Durk’s OTF and Rap Caviar teamed up to announce the project’s producers.
Contributors for the album include Alicia Keys, who produced the opening track, familiar faces like Chopsquad DJ, and heavy hitters like ATL Jacob, LilJuMadeDaBeat, Metro Boomin, Zaytoven, Wheezy, Dr. Luke, and more.
Lil Durk also announced his Sorry For The Drought Tour, which will embark on the road this summer with special guests Kodak Black, NLE Choppa, and DD Osama.
The 27-city tour, which Live Nation organizes, begins on July 28 in Tampa’s MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheater and travels to Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities before concluding on September 7 in Phoenix at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre.
Lil Durk returned last week, introducing his Almost Healed album with the new single “All My Life” featuring J. Cole.
Fans yearned for the full release of “All My Life” when Durk first teased it with a viral Instagram sample that lit up the internet. As J. Cole skillfully delivers his reflective stanza, the track’s mellow piano melody establishes the mood. Durk duets the chorus with a children’s chorus before delivering his verse.
You can hear the single and see the video bringing Cole, Durk, and the children to a remote forest home below. The Almost Healed album will now arrive on May 19. Tour dates are also available below.
There have been some major drops in recent weeks. First, there was NBA YoungBoy’s Richest Opp, a mixtape that he was hoping would become his 15th top 10 release. Then came Lil Durk’s “All My Life ft. J. Cole”, a single release that pre-empted the release of Durk’s upcoming album, Almost Healed.
Now, in this day and age, streaming numbers are just as important as physical sales. Spotify, the global streaming service, is one of the major sources of these streaming numbers, and some good news for Lil Durk has been revealed in recent days.
“All My Life” Dominates “Richest Opp”
Both Richest Opp and “All My Life” were released on May 12. The joint release sparked some fierce words, and a diss track, from YoungBoy. “Bitch-ass n***a, you pushed back, you bet not ever try it again,” YoungBoy said in response to news that Durk had pushed back the release of Almost Healed. Richest Opp also included a track that dissed Drake for associating with Durk. “Bitch, I send them hitters to hit at you, boy, don’t say shit to me. Talk to Drake, cross FaceTime, he wasn’t feelin’ me. Told me that he fuck with Durk, damn, that shit was gettin’ to me. Told me that he like the shit I’m doin’, but can’t do shit with me. So when we cross our ways, fuck what you say, bitch, you my enemy,” YoungBoy rapped on “Fuck The Industry Part 2”.
However, it appears that Durk has seen more success from his May 12 release than YoungBoy. According to Spotify’s streaming data at the time of writing, Richest Opp‘s 17 tracks have a combined 15 million streams. Furthermore, just four of the songs on the mixtapes have broken 1 million streams. Currently, the most popular song on the mixtape is “Bitch Let’s Do It” at 1,786,342 streams. By comparison, “All My Life” alone has 21 million streams. Both projects are yet to make their chart debut. Additionally, “All My Life” is projected to debut at #2 on the Billboard 100. Meanwhile, Richest Opp is expected to battle with The Jonas Brothers’ The Album for a top 5 spot on the Billboard 200.
Despite just being a single, “All My Life” from Lil Durk and J. Cole is already one fo hip-hop’s biggest moments of 2023. Whether it’s fan acclaim or other artists giving them their flowers, everybody emerged with exceeded expectations from this collab, which were already high. What’s more is that Smurk himself has already talked about what the feature means to him and how it impacted him. During a recent interview with RapCaviar, he remarked on how Cole didn’t even have to go that hard for the collab. Fortunately, it ended up with one of the more notable verses of the year from both MCs.
“Nah he went crazy,” Lil Durk expressed when it came to J. Cole’s feature. “I had to listen to it like four times. You know I ain’t super big on lyricist-type rappers. With Cole, [he] was one of the ones, like him and Jay, you gotta play them 50 times to catch what they’re saying. Like, if you listen to Lil Wayne right now, and you heard some s**t ten years ago that you just catch onto today. But he definitely gave me one of them verses and I appreciate it. ‘Cause he ain’t even have to, for real. He could’ve gave us anything.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Chicago MC spoke on J. Cole’s greatness on that track. “The number one thing, he smoked my a** on that, for one,” Lil Durk admitted. “Barely. That barely happens. But shoutout to Cole, shoutout to [Dr.] Luke. We made it happen.” In addition, other rappers like 21 Savage also had a lot of praise for the North Carolina spitter’s contributions in particular.
“Cole just went so crazy on that verse wtf,” the Atlanta MC wrote on Twitter. Furthermore, a lot of fans also had much to say about the Almost Healed artist’s lyrical display and thematic cohesion. It’s not like those traits are rare for The Voice, but they are always a treat to see when contrasted with his grittier and more boastful bars. For more updates on J. Cole and the latest news from Lil Durk, log back into HNHH.
Cole reportedly charges $2K per word for the feature
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