When she was looking for someone to appear on the remix to her summery single "Party," Beyoncé tapped none other than Roc Nation up-and-comer J. Cole to do the honors — and the 26-year-old rapper didn't take the privilege lightly. Speaking to Rhode Island's Hot 106 Rise and Grind morning show, Cole called guesting on the song a blessing, and admitted to recording multiple versions of his verse in order to earn Bey's favor.
“You know how many verses I did for that song,” said Cole, who fills in for André 3000 on the new version of the song. “I did a version of that before her album [4] even came out. I did two verses. I love these verses too, but they ended up going with André’s verse and André killed it.”
The North Carolina MC got his chance when Bey was looking to do a remix of the song, which would also be used for the music video. Cole heeded the call and went back to the lab.
“Then she reached out to me and she wanted me to get on the remix. I did two more verses. Out of the second set that I did, she picked the first verse. But my second verse, I just gotta say for the record… It was just too long, I think she was looking for something shorter and more to the point,” he said.
At the end of the day, Cole said he remains humbled by the whole experience.
“It’s just a blessing to even be able to work with [Beyoncé]. I’m on my defensive rapper, like yo man. When you follow in André’s 3000′s shoes, you’re expected to really go in. Just the fact to even be on the song with her and shoot the video with her and just be in her presence.… She’s such a hard-working, incredible artist. I’ll never forget that day we shot the video, I’ll never forget being able to be on that song, and hopefully we got more as time goes on. Shout out to Beyoncé.”
The video for "Party" featuring J. Cole will premiere today on 106 and Park.

(Photo: John Ricard / BET)