No Features

Beat Starts

Verse 1: J. Cole

No features on the album cause the album built alone today

every bar a different brick and every brick laid my way

no cosign no assistance no machine to break the fall tonight

I been the architect the builder and the wall built right

of everything that Dreamville represents and stands for still

no features meaning every word I got came from the will

of something real inside the chest and the pen and the craft

no features on the debut and I'd do it again and laugh.

Every rapper in the game been leaning on a borrowed name

I been the name since the basement and the name never the same

twice — every feature is a crutch I never ever needed

every bar I ever wrote was something I completed

without the help of anybody standing in my booth at night —

no features meaning every bar is nothing but the right

truth of a Carolina kid who built it all alone

no features on the album and the album is my own throne.

Fuck the ones who said I needed somebody else to carry

every feature on a record got a commentary

of doubt behind it — doubt meaning you couldn't fill the pages

of an album by yourself through all the different stages —

I been the skill and the craft and everything the record needed

every bar a different lesson and the lesson never heeded

by the comfortable — I was in the booth every night

converting every wound to something permanent and right.

Every bitch ass rapper leaning on a featured hook tonight

I been the hook the verse the bridge and every single light

of a debut that was built without a safety net below the craft

no features meaning every bar I wrote came from the shaft

of a hunger that the culture couldn't manufacture or contain

no features on the debut and the debut is the claim

of a Carolina kid who never needed anybody's hand to hold

no features is the statement and the statement getting bold

every level every layer every bar built from the truth —

no features on the debut since the first day in the booth.

Riding through the city with the vision crystal clear

no features meaning everything I built was built right here

in the basement with the pen and the hunger and the code

no features meaning I been carrying the entire load

of a debut that was always meant to carry its own weight —

no features is the standard and the standard always great

every rapper in the culture better study what I did

no features on the debut and the debut never hid.

Hook

No features on the album it's the truth that hits alive

standing strong no crutches just the craft on which I thrive

built it from the nothing of a basement and a pen

no features on the debut and I'd do it all again.

Verse 2: J. Cole

Second verse and the statement getting louder every single day

no features meaning every single thing I got to say

came from somewhere honest deep inside the chest and mind

no features meaning every bar took every bit of grind

that I had inside the basement and the notebook and the pen

no features on the debut and I'm going the fuck in again

past every rapper leaning on a cosign or a name tonight

no features is the standard and the standard burning bright.

Built from every basement every notebook every cold night

no features meaning I was always the only one in sight

of a vision that I carried from the dial tone to the stage

no features on the album and the album every page

of a story that I wrote without a single hand to hold tight

no features meaning every bar is honest and right

of a culture that I built without permission or a deal

no features on the album and every single bar is real.

Carolina raised a kid who never ever needed the assist

no features meaning every bar on every single list

of things I could have done to make it easier to sell fast

I chose the harder road and chose to make the harder last

without the safety net of somebody else's borrowed name —

no features is the statement and the statement is the claim

of a debut that was always meant to fucking stand alone

no features on the album and the album is my throne.

Every rapper in the culture better study what I did right

no features on the debut and the debut never hid at night

behind a name behind a cosign behind a borrowed shine

no features meaning every single word and every line

came from somewhere true inside the chest and the craft alone

no features meaning every bar I built I built on my own

every bitch ass rapper with a feature makes me laugh out loud

no features on the album and I'm saying it proud.

Built from every no built from every closed door and wall

no features meaning I was ready to take every fall

of a debut that demanded everything I had to give —

no features is the reason that the debut built to live

past every trend past every label past the quarterly

no features on the album and the album is the glory

of a Carolina kid who bet on nothing but the craft —

no features on the debut and the debut built to last.

Beat Ends