The Come Up is J. Cole’s debut mixtape; the foundational project was hosted by DJ OnPoint. Cole self-produced the majority of the tracklist, including his debut single “Simba,” for which he shot his first music video. Containing samples from his idols Kanye West, Nas, Jay-Z, and more, The Come Up includes a guest feature from Deacon and a Cole-produced Nervous Reck track. When Cole sat down with HipHopDX in 2010, he described his opinion on the project: I think The Come Up was way more raw; it’s raw just straight rappin'. I am just trying to prove I can really rap with anybody, I can hang with anybody. I was trying to keep up with the Lil Wayne’s and all that at that time. The Come Up is the foundation of Cole’s career, later followed by The Warm Up. It is the first step in the sports-adjacent thematic structure of Cole’s most integral releases, which would later include his 2010 classic mixtape, Friday Night Lights, his 2021 sixth studio album, The Off-Season, and his 2026 seventh studio album, The Fall-Off. On November 18, 2024, Cole re-released the tape on all streaming platforms in correlation with the debut of his Inevitable podcast series with his manager and long-time friend, Ibrahim Hamad. The audio series’ first episode, appropriately titled “The Come Up,” aired concurrently with the DSP re-release. The streaming version of the mixtape notably lacks three of its original songs.