J. Cole Thinks XXXTentacion Is Talented

XXXTentacion may be one of hip-hop's most controversial figures but there's no denying the Florida artist is a skilled rapper, and J. Cole agrees.

During an impromptu interview with the No Jumper podcast, the topic of XXXTentacion came up, and Cole said he learned of the 17 rapper after a video of him getting punched onstage in San Diego went viral last year.

According to the 4 Your Eyez Only MC, after being removed from hip-hop news for a few months, he was made aware of the XXX video, which led him to check out the rapper's work.

"So like last year, and the kid got punched onstage. The kid X got punched onstage. And it was clearly big enough to make it into my realm," said Cole. "We was on tour or something. Niggas was like, 'Yo, you seen this kid get knocked the fuck out?' We watchin' the video like, 'Oh shit!' Gettin' the backstory, boom, boom, boom. I don't know who none of these kids are at the time. Then I'm like, damn, like what does bruh do? So that leads me to like hear some of his shit. And I'm like, damn, this nigga's actually talented."

In related J. Cole news, the lyricist was recently announced as one of the headliners for the 2018 Wireless Festival. The event, which kicks off on July 6 in London, will include Cole, DJ Khaled and Stormzy as headliners. Other appearances will include Migos, Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert, Big Sean and more.

As for XXX, the 20-year-old recently hinted at the possibility of a collaboration project with Joey Bada$$. On Jan. 20, XXXTentacion made a post on his Instagram story that featured the captions, "xxxtentacion x joey badass" and "Collaboration Tape." Joey responded to the post by replying, "LETSGOOOOO @xxxtentacion."

Check out J. Cole discussing XXXTentacion below.

See Behind-the-Scenes Photos of XXXTentacion at the 2017 XXL Freshman Shoot