The Warm Up was the mixtape that took J. Cole from promising newcomer to budding star, but the music on the tape was almost quite different than what actually came out in 2009. In an interview with DJBooth, Cole’s manager Ibrahim “IB” Hamad explained that the mixtape was originally more freestyle-centric because Cole wanted “to get back to grassroots,” before they heard Drake’s landmark mixtape So Far Gone.
In the interview, Hamad revealed that Cole and the Dreamville team felt pressure while making The Warm Up, which prompted Cole to start recording freestyles at the home of producer Elite. Hamad said that the plan changed after they heard Drake’s tape.
“And then Drake dropped So Far Gone. After that, we knew we couldn’t drop a mixtape full of freestyles. The bar had changed. Mixtapes were like albums now. Okay, let’s adjust,” Hamad said. “That’s when we started to put real songs on there. The last song added was ‘Lights Please,’ which we didn’t want to put on there. We were saving that [for the album].”
Hamad and Cole were urged by producer and executive Mark Pitts, who signed Cole to his ByStorm Entertainment, to include “Lights Please” instead of saving it for an album. Hamad said that Cole re-recorded the song roughly 20 times because they lost the original file. The track proved to be a hit and was ultimately included on Cole’s 2011 major label debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story.
The Warm Up does still contain Cole rapping over instrumentals from older songs such as Talib Kweli’s “Get By,” JAY-Z’s “Dead Presidents II,” and “‘93 'til Infinity” by Souls of Mischief.
Cole and Drake went on to collaborate on the songs “In the Morning” and “Jodeci Freestyle.” In a 2009 interview with COMPLEX, Cole explained how The Warm Up differed from 2007’s The Come Up Vol. 1.
“This is more song making and more mature. Content-wise, it goes along with the story. "The Come Up” was about me coming up and moving to New York,“ Cole said. "This about me being up here and me having my feet planted and learning how to maneuver.”
Genius reflected on “Lights Please” in the episode of Song Stories below.
Read the full lyrics to The Warm Up and the rest of J. Cole’s discography on Genius now.
