BIA is making a splash with her first official single of 2022 by recruiting J. Cole for “London.”
The Los Angeles-based artist out of Massachusetts—whose “Whole Lotta Money” remix with Nicki Minaj hit No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 last year—teased the collaboration a few days earlier via a black silhouette covering the flag of the United Kingdom, revealing hours later who the special guest was, with Cole describing it as “one of them ones.”
The music video for the song appropriately takes place in the capital of England, with BIA and crew showing out around town while cultural landmarks like Big Ben pop up. J. Cole later joins in, offering up U.K. references and sprinkling in a British accent throughout his verse over the AzizTheShake, Jon Glass, Tim Nihan-produced beat as he kicks it with BIA.
“Yummy, they got no more bread, they’re crummy/The same way that Melo was staring at Rih is the way that I stare at the money,” he raps, later giving a nod to T.I.’s latest career endeavor. “Why would I choose between this one or that one when I know that I can have both/I laugh at these rappers for cappin’, I guess T.I.P. ain’t the only one out here with jokes.”
Outside of his new BIA collab, Cole’s kept himself busy in 2022, with the first quarter of the year featuring the return of Dreamville Festival, a label compilation project to commemorate the event with help from DJ Drama, along with guest verses for YG, EarthGang, and Benny the Butcher—the latter of which he declared himself “the best rapper alive.”
After the new track and video dropped, Cole took to social media to talk about how it all came together.
“I damn near didn’t even wanna put this clip up cuz I need everybody to hear this shit PURE. How I heard it!” he wrote. “I Asked BIA to come through the studio for some whole other shit. First time meeting her. We chop it up. She plays me this new song she had just did. Mannnnnnn 🤯🤯🤯🤯 in that moment I was blown away.”
Cole continued, “I thought about this song for a month straight, it was my favorite song and I only heard it one time. She hit me recently and sent me the song (she musta knew I wanted to hear it again!!!) and I was just grateful to have it in my possession. 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. I didn’t want to fuck nothing up! I’m grateful I Ended up catching the right wave.”
He went on thank BIA for the opportunity to hop on the track.
Check out the music video for BIA and J. Cole’s “London” up top, and stream the song on all major platforms.
