J. Cole
J. Cole
Jermaine Lamarr Cole, better known by his stage name J. Cole, is an American rapper, record producer and songwriter. Cole first received recognition in 2007, following the release of his debut mixtape, The Come Up. Shortly after the release of The Warm Up in 2009, Cole was contacted by American rapper Jay Z and subsequently signed to his record label Roc Nation. In that same year, Cole released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, which was itself followed by Cole's...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth28 January 1985
CountryUnited States of America
I started playing violin in the 5th grade. They had a program in school where you could get out of class to go play instruments. So I raised my hand, left out of class, me and a bunch of my homeboys, just to get out of class for that day. They asked what instrument you wanted to play and I picked the violin.
I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I'm giving you myself in the music. There's where the connection comes from; you can't Twitter that.
There's been people who've rapped and produced - like Kanye - but I don't feel like on the rapping side there's ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.
I've got two Rolexes that I'm very proud of - a gold Presidential that was a gift and a white gold one I gifted myself. I'm trying to step my game up and get a few more of those.
Sometimes I try a Mai Tai. It's so fruity. It's a little embarrassing, but I like it.
I do put a lot of God in my music, but not because I'm super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music, too. I acknowledge both.
I'm not a conscious rapper, all those things we talk about, the struggle, the pain, the outlook to the future, keep your head up. I try to put all those positive things into a regular human character, which is myself.
I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening.
When you're headlining, people are paying to come see you specifically. It's a different kind of pressure, because you've got to deliver. You've got to give these people what they paid for. It's a different mind state, a different type of mentality, but it's honestly a pretty good problem to have, you know?
I worked in ad sales. I would call up local businesses and try to get them to buy ads in the paper. The whole time, I felt like I was just scamming people.
It's not necessarily a church theme and it's not really about church. I like my album themes to be metaphors because it gives me the freedom to speak about something else that's going on in my life, so the Born Sinner thing is not about church, it's not even about religion. It's using that as canvas to get other messages across and that's what the album will be.
I'm half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That's why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I've seen so many.