Omen met J. Cole online before he was signed to J. Cole's label, Dreamville. According to djbooth.net:The Reintroduction of Dreamville's Omen: "I'm In a Good Place" by Hibak Mohamed, April 25, 2019 ,Omen said,"I was on the blogs in high school just 'cause I was a nerd and I was into that. More specifically a rap nerd. We were fans of this artist named Canibus,and we were just like on the fan sure. Even [Dreamville producer]Elite was on there. We had text battles and audio battles. It was a bunch of artists on there sharing their work". Moreover Omen said,"We became fans of each other's work. We would talk on Instant Messenger. Cole was like 15 and I was 17 at the time".
The fact that Cole was 15 and Omen was 17 when they met clearly shows that they knew each other way before Dreamville Records was formed. Moreover,Dreamville producer Elite was also part of the fan site hence this probably influenced the formation of Dreamville Records. There were text battles and audio battles hence influencing J. Cole and Omen to become rappers. J. Cole and Omen met when they were teenagers explaining the reason why they are close friends. Sharing their work through text battles and audio battles also explains why Omen was signed to Dreamville Records.
Can we really say that Omen and Cole are close friends? I believe they are close friends because as stated by Evan Vogel on his music review about Elephant Eyes album,he said,"Elephant Eyes was damn near finished and even called "classic" by Cole himself on the last track of Forest Hills Drive". Cole giving a shout out to Omen on his album Forest Hills Drive which is known to be the best albums of all time could be speculated that Omen and J. Cole have a close friendship. Cole has appreciated Omen's work through text battles and audio battles in the past and up until this day he still appreciates Omen's work as an artist and a rapper. They seem to have been good friends since they were teenagers.
Omen was the opening act to J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive tour. The tour took place in Berlin,Germany on 8th of May 2015.
J. Cole and Omen have one thing in common that is telling a story through their songs. For example Omen used his album Elephant Eyes to narrate his personal life. For example on the song, Elephant Eyes, Omen mentioned that he got the nickname,"Elephant Eyes" from a woman he liked. He also shows his relationship with his father which was strained because the father seemed to have chosen his career over his son (Omen).
J. Cole used his album 4 Your Eyez Only to show his personal experience. For example on the song 4 Your Eyez Only, Cole acts as a messenger between his late friend James and his daughter Nina. James was living a life of crime and Cole tried to stop him but it was in James blood. This is why Cole explains his friends experience and how it affected him (Cole) to the extent he decided to write the song 4 Your Eyez Only.
Omen and J. Cole are similar in a way because they are story tellers. They want listeners to relate to their music which is why they share their past experiences. Moreover the fact they started talking when they were teenagers and then they are part of the same label till this day clearly shows they are close friends.
*If you're interested in knowing more about these albums,"Elephant Eyes", "2014 Forest Hills Drive" and "4 Your Eyez Only",you can read them from this blog site*
Comments