"Lights Please" was the first song that was heard by his manager
Mark Pitts, who later played it for
Jay-Z. Pitts said in a 2011 interview, "I went to Jay's house and said, 'I'm going to play you one thing,' and I played him "Lights Please." Prior to Jay-Z reaction to the song, he called Cole and set up a meeting the next morning. The meeting led to Cole signing with
Roc Nation, an achievement Cole had been striving for since attending college. Although the song appeared on
The Warm Up, Cole initially planned for it to be on his debut album. "I was performing the song in front of most of these people [who] didn't really know me they might have heard [of me]. I was like, 'I'm about to do this song. I wanna do something for y'all it's called "Lights Please." Even if I drop my album in 2012 this gonna be on the album." I said that not really knowing that my album would really almost drop in 2012. I said it just as a joke, but I was serious." Cole also said in interview, "when history is told 10, 15 years from now, 20, 30, 40 years from now, it's important that they know that song was a big part of my career. I wanted to do that song justice, it deserved more than [a mixtape track]." ==Recording and composition==