Rapper Bia is having a big year—from launching a cosmetics line called Beauty For Certain, touring with Russ, and scoring some big-name collaborations. Among her collaborators is J. Cole, who is featured on her latest track, “London.”
On “London,” both Bia and Cole rap in British accents over a drill-inspired beat. Bia recently spoke with Variety about how she presented several tracks, including “London” to Cole, for his consideration. After collaborating with Cole, Bia said she was inspired to step up her pen game.
“I learned I have to push my pen to maximum every single time because you never know when J. Cole’s going to get on your record,” she said. “Now, I’m pushing it 10 times harder. Every bar, ugh! Let me see how I can take that up a notch. Outside of that, too, I learned a lot about balance. Because the way he’s super punctual — he’s on time for everything. I’m never on time, but I’ll stay late. I need to get better at punctuality.”
Ahead of the song’s release last month, Cole also had nothing but positive words to say about Bia’s craft.
“When the thought and conversation came up about me adding a verse, I was excited but genuinely nervous cuz I didn’t even see how the song could be better after what she did to it,” said Cole in an Instagram post. “I didn’t want to f*ck nothing up! I’m grateful I Ended up catching the right wave.”