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After years of putting on for Dreamville, J. Cole finally sits at the helm of a label of his own of the same name at Interscope Records. In fact, Light Skinned Jermaine could harbor another major player in Hip-Hop should the proverbial pendulum swing in the right direction. Some of that relies on Bas, a Sudanese MC who hails from Queens and our latest Certified Fresh feature.

Like his partner in rhyme, the details of Bas’ backstory are both intricate and unique. For one, he’s been rapping for roughly four years (let that marinate for a second). But like age, years put in aren’t a thing but a number in the grand scheme of things. Bas simply worked harder and smarter than most when he found music, and it didn’t hurt that he and Cole had a good relationship for years prior. In that short time, Bas left the street life, and any wages that came with it. He instead took heed of advice from the “Power Trip” rapper and his manager Ibrahim Hammad, who would chronically cite that he was too intelligent to get caught up in criminal activity.

Bas began to develop himself as a MC and he eventually found a sound that he’s comfortable with through his work with Cole and the entire Dreamville family. He’s now set to be the first artist to release an official body of work on the label. As listeners gear up to hear Last Winter, learn more about the man who created it below.

Who: Bas is the first at bat from J. Cole’s newly founded Dreamville records. With only roughly four years of experience as a rapper, the Paris-born, Queens-bred wordsmith’s coming up age story starts in the streets. Fortunately, his older brother and NYC’s own DJ Moma influenced his quirky musical taste, which includes European artists like Jamiroquai, early in life. Bas soon followed in his brother’s footsteps by deejaying and using his college friends as a means of connecting him with the right people in NYC.

As fate would have it, one random night would inspire Bas to quit deejaying to begin rapping. He also happened to know a young Cole, who was attending St. John’s University at the time and had at least yet to release his breakout mixtape The Warm Up yet. Over the years, Bas’ persistence, song presence, and natural rhyming ability would improve as the Roc Nation rapper’s star rose. As you can see, the rest is history.

Credentials: Bas proved that he could stand on his own two via a pair of projects titled Quarter Water Raised Me and Quarter Water Raised Me Vol. II, respectively. It appears that the New Yorker’s most understated skill is his ability to soak up knowledge like a sponge and apply it in a variety of ways. That said, the aforementioned releases and the material he contributed to Dreamville’s free The Revenge of the Dreamers mixtape infers that Last Winter could be ill.

Fun Fact: In his lifetime, Bas has done everything from DJ and rap, while also dabbling in street activity. Don’t expect him to speak on that dirt in great detail, though.

Photo: Dreamville, Instagram

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