A History of BTS & J. Cole’s Love Throughout the Years

Released before BTS made its official debut, RM and Jung Kook’s rendition of J. Cole’s “Like a Star” was an early indication of Cole’s undeniable influence on the band. Shared more than four months before BTS would release its first album, the Feb. 2, 2013, adaptation of “Like a Star” was the first time BTS introduced Jung Kook to fans with a message describing him as the “golden maknae,” a nickname that’s stuck with him to highlight his skills as the group’s endlessly talented youngest member.

RM and JK’s “Like a Star” remains a streaming-only track today via SoundCloud.

Less than a month after BTS made its official debut on the music scene, the group revealed “Born Singer,” an unofficial release on the band’s YouTube and Soundcloud accounts on July 11, 2013. The track is adapted from J. Cole’s song “Born Sinner,” the title track and final song on the rapper’s sophomore album released five days after BTS’ debut on June 13, 2013. The track keeps the same production and composition as the original, but BTS rappers RM, Suga and j-hope rewrote the lyrics.

While Cole’s “Born Sinner” was a dedication to doing better, “Born Singer” was BTS’ reflection on the hardships the members felt in their first month after debut. From the start, the Bangtan Boys stood out from other pop stars by showcasing hip-hop as an ingrained musical and lyrical inspiration — which didn’t fit the K-pop industry standards at the time — making “Born Singer” one of their earliest underdog anthems.

More than a year after BTS’ official debut, the group released its first studio album, Dark & Wild. While the LP included singles “Danger” and “War of Hormone,” the guys shared their hip-hop inspirations on fan-favorite B-side “Hip Hop Phile.” From shouting out hip-hop forefathers such as Gang Star and Nas to the new generation of rappers including Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller, “Hip Hop Phile” naturally included a mention of J. Cole during j-hope’s verse. j-hope dedicated two lines of his verse to Cole: “Hope hope world/ Before I built my own world, there was Cole World.”

Stream “Hip Hop Phile” here.

During a 2014 episode of Honey FM 06.13 — BTS’ ongoing “radio show” that the group used to hold frequently — RM spoke about the inspiration and appreciation he had for J. Cole and the song “Love Yourz,” which was the last single off Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive LP. Not only did RM praise J. Cole as “Jay-Z’s successor,” but he shared how he particularly resonated with the lyrics of self-love and gratitude.

Some ARMY fans even thought this 2014 song might have inspired BTS’ Love Yourself album series from 2017-2018.

For his first mixtape, BTS leader RM (known back then by his Rap Monster stage name) utilized several samples from other artists’ songs like any classic mixtape. Ranging from J. Dilla and Drake to Major Lazer and Chase & Status, the RM mixtape samples mixed in a range of artists’ sounds as well as two J. Cole samples.

RM’s “Monster” contains the beat from Cole’s “Grown Simba” (a track J. Cole’s own 2009 mixtape that sampled “Overture: A Partial History of Black Music” by composer Mervyn Warren), while the track “God Rap” includes elements of “God’s Gift” (a Cole-produced cut off his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story).

“Monster” is available for streaming via BTS’ Soundcloud, while “God Rap” is available only via downloading the tape from the BTS blog.

Only the most eagle-eyed of the ARMY would have spotted this little homage to J. Cole. As part of the lead-up to BTS’ record-setting Wings album, the band revealed “short film” videos to tease upcoming new tracks. In the first short film unveiled featuring Jung Kook solo song “Begin,” viewers watch the youngest BTS member grapple with a bad dream that includes a vision of a burning piano. You can spot J. Cole’s Billboard magazine cover from 2013 glowing behind the fire on a door.

That particular cover story dropped right before Cole would release his seminal Born Sinner album, one of the primary inspirations to BTS, and solidified him as a breakthrough chart star.

As the leader of BTS, RM is famous for having the perfect words to share with fans through the years. But he leans on his idols at times, too, sharing a line from J. Cole’s “Change,” a B-side from Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only album released in December 2016, just before Christmas that year.

Alongside classics such as Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind” and The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Notorious Thugs,” plus new-age hip-hop anthems including Drake and Lil Wayne’s “HYFR,” BTS’ Suga showed love to J. Cole by including “Work Out” on the wide-ranging “SUGA’s Hip-Hop Replay” playlist that used to live under BTS’ official Spotify account.

By 2018, anyone who knew anything about BTS knew of the group’s admiration for J. Cole. Still, five years into their career, the guys started manifesting about working with their dream collaborator. In a Forbes interview around Love Herself: Her, RM listed rappers he’d like to collaborate with. While first listing Dr. Dre and J. Cole before deciding there were “too many,” RM mentioned that J. Cole was “one of the greatest,” adding, “He’s so cool.”

Taking inspiration from J. Cole’s first studio album Cole World: The Sideline Story, j-hope’s first full solo project was named Hope World. The parallel between the two names would show up again years later.

When the BTS members curated Spotify playlists of their favorite tracks, j-hope included two of J. Cole’s Billboard Hot 100 hits in his 21-song mix: There was Cole’s 2011 track “Work Out” (which peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100 and spent over half a year on the chart) as well as his Miguel collaboration “All I Want Is You” (which peaked at No. 58 and spent 14 weeks charting).

While BTS prepared for the release of its Proof anthology, “Born Singer” on the career-spanning project required the OK from J. Cole himself. In an interview with Weverse Magazine, Suga revealed that Cole himself approved.

“I didn’t even know if it could be included on the album,” Suga said. “I wasn’t even sure it would be possible, since the original song is so famous, but J. Cole gave us permission. I want to tell him how grateful I am.”

Suga added that the song was essential to the group, and they were excited for newer fans to hear it for the first time potentially.

“We just put it in since it wouldn’t be possible to listen back on this period of ours unless it was in a concert,” he said. “And there might be some ARMY who don’t even know that the song exists. We felt like a lot of who we are went into the song, so we unanimously agreed that it should be included.”

Lollapalooza 2022 was already historic with j-hope as the first-ever Korean headliner, but the weekend festival became even more special when he linked up with J. Cole. Accompanied by bandmate Jimin, who was there to support the headliner, j-hope shared photos from backstage at the Chicago fest with a massive smile as he hung out with Cole. j-hope, J. Cole and Jimin all posed for a photo together.

j-hope captioned his post simply with “hope world meets cole world,” referencing albums by both artists.

Once J. Cole gave his blessing for BTS to clear the “Born Sinner” sample for “Born Singer,” everyone was excited. In particular, the song’s cowriter James Fauntleroy, who also features on the track, shared on Instagram that seeing his name on the Proof album tracklisting was “insaaaaaane” and thanked BTS.

With three songs coproduced on Born Sinner alongside Cole, including “Born Sinner” and the TLC-featuring single “Crooked Smile,” Elite wrote on Instagram that “this is fkin crazy.”

Meanwhile, J. Cole manager and Dreamville president Ibrahim “IB” Hamad showed appreciation via Instagram Story when the tracklist dropped. “They got my name in a BTS album credits,” he wrote. “Off a song we made almost 10 years ago. Crazy. Shout out to BTS for the cover of ‘Born Sinner.’”

Ahead of the release of “On the Street,” j-hope and J. Cole secretly met to film the music video in New York City. In a behind-the-scenes video that BTS shared from the shoot, j-hope fanboys excitedly over the filming and J. Cole delivers mutual respect back to the K-pop star. Cole said the collaboration “is a blessing” and listened as j-hope shared how he’s been a fan since his teens. Adorably, j-hope arrived early and stayed on set to monitor J. Cole’s filming the entire time before the two came together for their joint scene.

Announced as a special one-off single for j-hope, “On the Street” was revealed to feature the group’s idol J. Cole to mark a genuinely full-circle moment for the star. The song came just as j-hope shared that he would soon enlist for South Korea’s mandatory military service, making the collaboration all the more momentous.

Making for an even fuller circle moment of musical recognition, J. Cole dropped a shout-out to BTS during his feature on Tee Grizzley‘s “Blow for Blow,” spitting: “I stay hot, doin’ numbers like K-pop/ BTS in the flesh, while they flop.”

“Blow for Blow” entered the Hot 100 at No. 88 on the chart dated Oct. 12, 2024.

J. Cole’s release of his first full-length album in nearly five years, The Fall-Off, was cause for celebration with RM and j-hope both sharing cuts from the record on their social media.

During release week, RM posted Spotify links for “39 Intro” and the Burna Boy-featuring “Only You” on his Instagram Story, while j-hope posted “The Fall-Off.”

After J. Cole released his first full-length album in nearly five years with The Fall-Off — earning the biggest sales week for a project in 2026 so far — J-Hope had to take a moment to congratulate his collaborator and “brother” on his seventh Billboard 200 No. 1.

“Congrats on the album, Cole hyung,” J-Hope said during a Weverse livestream on his birthday, adding hyung as a sign of friendly respect in Korean that males use for older men. “Album went crazy for real! You will always be my GOAT. Thank you, brother. Much love to you.”

As part of a mysterious campaign ahead of BTS’ ARIRANG album, posters with the phrase “What Is Your Love Song?” have been posted around the world. On Feb. 18, BTS’ Instagram made several posts across its Instagram Story with the poster, tagging each of the seven members in their own post.

Not missing a moment to shout out his GOAT, j-hope re-posted the IG Story on his own @uarmyhope account with “Higher,” a track off J. Cole’s Friday Night Lights mixtape released on Nov. 12, 2010, that details how materialism complicates relationships, to his 53.4 million-plus followers.

j-hope previously told Cole when meeting him in person that Friday Night Lights — and especially “Higher” — were some of his favorites.