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“And you never know, 10 years from now, I could be Jay.”

When a person is highly skilled with his/her particular abilities, there is always the instance that greatness will bring about comparisons to other greats.

For J. Cole, the comparison was made by Drake that the North Carolina rapper could be the next Nas and he could serve as the new Jay as time passed.

Why does every artist want to be the next Jay or Nas anyway?  Wouldn’t be better to surpass the greats?

Cole, however, tends to find such thoughts to be a little premature and asks the question, what if this buzz only carries for a year?

During an interview with Complex Magazine, Cole speaks on the comparisons and adds that tomorrow is never promised in the music industry and a person will never know exactly where he/she will end up in the record books.

“You can’t call things like that, that early. You can’t say I’m Nas because, look, Nas was in the game for 16 years. What if I’m not here next year? What if you’re not here next year? I don’t think you can say stuff like that this early, but I understand what people are saying. At his status right now, he’s the most talked-about guy in the game. The Nas comparison is like, ‘He gets a little bit beyond the surface,’ but I feel like when it comes to those comparisons, it’s way too early.”

Whatever the future may hold for Drake and for J. Cole all that can be asked is that they concern themselves less with who to compare themselves with and more with creating their own lane and becoming the next to do it.  Why be Jay or Nas when a person might be better?