J Cole’s “7 Minute Drill” Title Explained By Producer T-Minus
T-Minus, who worked with J. Cole on his new song, “7 Minute Drill,” reflected on the making of the track at a Dreamville Festival panel with Complex‘s Jordan Rose on Friday. In doing so, he explained the title and how it stems from a writing drill Cole likes to use. The track is the closing song to his new mixtape, Might Delete Later.
“Cole likes to do these writing drills,” he began. “He calls them ‘seven-minute writing drills.’ He’ll write a joint for like seven minutes and see how far he can get, but he also does it with production. So over the last few years, when we cook up, he’ll be like, ‘Yo, make a beat in seven minutes. Go.’ Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘You do a verse in seven minutes.’ So after I did my seven-minute beat, I was like, ‘It’s your turn.’ He’s like, ‘Yo, give me a word.’ So I looked at my FL Studio system and I saw the word ‘light,’ so I was like, ‘light.’ He took it from there and started with ‘light.'”
J. Cole Performs At Dreamville Festival
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - APRIL 02: J. Cole performs during the 2023 Dreamville Music festival at Dorothea Dix Park on April 02, 2023 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
Despite the title, it actually took Cole slightly longer than seven minutes, as T-Minus added: “I left the room, gave him seven minutes and came back. He’s like, ‘Yo, just give me another seven minutes. I think I’ve got something going.’ And, you know, the rest is history.” The track is making waves on social media for the lyrics, with which Cole disses Kendrick Lamar. The two have been feuding since Lamar took aim at Cole and Drake on Metro Boomin and Future’s hit song, “Like That.”
T-Minus Discusses Making "7 Minute Drill"
Check out T-Minus’ comments on the making of “7 Minute Drill” above. Be on the lookout for further updates on J. Cole and his feud with Kendrick Lamar on HotNewHipHop.
About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.
