Mr. Nice Watch

Album: Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • This dubstep-tinged electro-rap tune is a track from American rapper J. Cole's debut studio album, Cole World: The Sideline Story. The song features his label boss Jay-Z and was released on the Internet by Cole himself on September 14, 2011.
  • During a listening-session for the album, Cole said he thought about using this song's title after reading it as a headline in a "rich person's magazine."
  • The song finds Cole spitting rhymes in which he justifies splashing out on an expensive chain and watches as time is fleeting. "They say time is money, but really it's not," the North Carolina rapper spits. "If we ever go broke, girl, then time is all we got."
  • The song title was borrowed from Jay-Z's 1997 track "A Million and One Questions," where the still-on-the-rise Hova raps, "Uggh, nice watch, do you really have a spot?/ Like you said in 'Friend or Foe' and if so, what block?"
  • Jay's sweary verse starts with a Southern reference to college football as he raps "Got a Hublot, I call Tebow, I strap that bitch with a gator band/ Y'all n---as ball half time, y'all n---as like the Gator band." Hova is referring to Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow to metaphorically illustrate the pleasure he takes in his own male wrist jewelry.
  • Cole laid down this song in the last week of recording for Cole World: The Sideline Story. He told Billboard magazine: "That's how I work. I'll be working on a project, like a mixtape or something, and as we get to the end, I'll look at what I have and what's missing."

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