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In an exclusive interview with HipHopDX, Bas talks about the inspiration J. Cole has had on him since launching his career.

Jermaine Lamarr Cole. Better known as J. Cole,the ambitious student had dreams of making it as a Hip Hop artist and he did. Loyal as ever, Cole made Hamad his manager and president of Dreamville Records and encouraged Bas to rap as well, bringing them both along for the ride. Fast-forward to 2021 and Bas still feels fortunate to work alongside such a creative genius. In July, the two paired up for a single and accompanying video called The Jackie,which found them cruising around New York City in a convertible Chrysler LeBaron with Cole playing the role of an Uber driver. Much like the visual for 2018s Tribe, it was immediately clear how effortless their collaborative relationship truly is. During a recent interview with HipHopDX,Bas opened up about the profound effect Cole has had on not only his career but also his life in general. Cole makes me want to work harder, he told DX. Thats for sure. You know? Just how dedicated he still remains to his craft, as someone whos achieved what most of us want and aspire to. You know, levels we all aspire to get to. Hes reached it in this field. I got to work with him on the Off-Season and just seeing his work ethic and his commitment to working on his craft every day. Im like, Man, itll definitely make you feel like youve been slacking.' But Bas hasnt been slacking by any stretch of the imagination since launching his career in 2007. His moment of clarity came after a long night of partying when he realized he wanted to give rapping a legitimate try, something he credits for saving his life. I was getting in trouble a bit, he explained. I was in this phase of life, where I had dropped out of school, and I was just doing all the wrong things. So my brother DJ Moma gave me his MacBook. He was DJing all over New York, and he was like, Just start opening up my gigs for me. Hes always been playing me records, since I was a kid. So I started DJing around New York for a year and then with that same laptop one of my homies convinced me at an afterparty to just put on GarageBand, and we did a track. It mightve been 11 of us on the song. The song was 15 minutes long. We wouldnt even stop to edit it; it was just a continuous recording. You hear dudes cracking and rolling up weed on the record. We were just having some fun with it. Read more