J. Cole Talks Dale Earnhardt Jr. With ESPN ::J. Cole News ::antiMusic.com

J. Cole Talks Dale Earnhardt Jr. With ESPN

. (Radio.com) ESPN's annual music issue is here, pairing musicians together with athletes who might not have otherwise bumped elbows. There's Katy Perry painting eye black on J.J. Watts, and J. Cole posting up in a race car with NASCAR standout Dale Earnhardt Jr.

While Perry and Watts might seem like a random pairing, Cole and Earnhardt aren't as surprising of a match. In fact, just this past year on his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, the rapper shouted out the pro driver on "Note to Self." So naturally ESPN inquired about this in a story dubbed, "Dale Earnhardt Jr. and J. Cole: The Perfect Strangers."

The shoutout came about after J. Cole read an interview with Earnhardt where he found out the 40-year-old was a fan. "There was an interview Dale Jr. did that asked him what he plays before races, and he said 'J. Cole 'Power Trip,' which freaked me out!," Cole reminisced. "What is Dale Earnhardt Jr. doing playing my s-? How did he even find out about it? You don't think somebody on that level would ever hear your stuff. From there, I never forgot. I was always like, 'Yo, I ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'"

When he was working on the album's outro, he decided to throw Earnhardt's name in the mix. "I'd been working on the album for a year, and I was in such an ecstatic mood--I felt like I won. So while I'm shouting out everybody, I was like, 'I may as well pretend a shoutout, somebody I have no idea who they are, just as a joke.' So when I was picking a name, I chose his. And it worked out crazy." Read more here.

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