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'Now This Right Here Is Not a Preview'

Culture | the porch | Keyona Porshaa`


Dreamville Festival curator, J. Cole’s extended playlist, ‘Truly Yours 2,’ turned 10-years-old Sunday, April 30.

The Truly Yours 2 extended playlist cover art with 'See you June 25th, Truly Yours 2, J. Cole' written in cursive

The EP known to many as one of the Fayetteville native’s greatest works of art feature guest rappers Young Jeezy, 2 Chainz and Bas, with 6 tracks clocked at about 23 minutes. According to SoundCloud, the masterpiece has garnered over 34.6 million streams despite some hip hop heads that seem to have been searching for the playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.


Debuting two months before his second studio album, Born Sinner, Cole expressed the purpose in the opening bars,

"now this right here is not a preview of what the album gone bring, or nothing like that,” the Dreamville label owner said. “Sharing things I think quietly, with those that admire me, remember MTV Diary? This something like that.”

Photo courtesy of Fayetteville Observer

The then 28-year-old, spit storytelling bars over one of hip hop's most melodic samples from Lauryn Hill’s ‘Nothing Even Matters’ for the first track Cole Summer. The tracklist also includes:

  • Kenny Lofton

  • Chris Tucker

  • Head Bussa

  • Cousins and 3 Wishes.

For some listeners, they were introduced to new artists, and reintroduced to others, like Titty Boi or Bas. “[I] Got introduced to Bas on this tape,” @RJFLOMUSIC wrote on Twitter. And then there are listeners like me who’ve been rapping the lyrics for years but hadn’t yet dug deep into the inspo behind all of the track's namesakes.

Photos courtesy of The Fader, Fayetteville Observer and Billboard

For instance, the second track is named after center fielder for the Indians who at retirement, recorded 15th player among all-time stolen base leaders, Kenny Lofton, to which he references, "Kenny Lofton, you feeling my pace? They only care about a n***a when he stealin' a base." And for the following track, well, money does talk and if you don’t get that reference then we'll pause here, while you open a streaming tab, search ‘Money Talks,’ then come back and talk money with us.

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