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Bas And J. Cole Celebrate Good Fortune In 'Tribe'

Though understated, there's a special kind of lightning that strikes when J. Cole and Bas get on a track together. The Dreamville members (Bas was signed to J. Cole's label in 2014) have a knack for playing off each other from one verse to the next in a way that sounds like old friends catching up over drinks on a porch sill. With past singles like 2013's "New York Times" and 2016's "Night Job" under their belts, the pair add another track to their collaborative catalog with "Tribe."

From Bas' forthcoming album Milky Way, the new track, produced by Childish Major and J. Cole, cherishes basking in good fortune while you're still in the thick of it. As a follow-up to his most recent and equally sunny single "Boca Raton" featuring A$AP Ferg, the New York rapper and Dreamville signee retreats to the Sunshine State once more for the song's video. The richly saturated visual features Bas driving through Miami in an aqua convertible — breeze blowing through his beard — before linking up with Cole to play conga drums and dance in front of murals in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.

Like the song's message, the video celebrates the timing of life's blessings. "Can't spoil time on nickeling and diming / I got me a girl, she don't want no diamonds / A daily reminder to holler at God / Like where did you find her? Good looking," Bas rhymes over the acoustic guitar-aided beat.

Bas first previewed this track at a festival in the Netherlands earlier this summer. Like Cole's 2018 release KOD,Bas' Milky Wayis set to drop on short notice, but is reminding fans why Dreamville as a label remains a rap brigade of down-to-earth heroes.


Milky Way comes out Aug. 24 via Dreamville/Interscope Records.

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Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.