J. Cole
"King Cole."
Who is J.cole?
J. Cole is a rapper and producer who has achieved success in the early 2010s. Since signing to Jay Z’s Roc Nation, he has toured worldwide, sold huge amounts of records, produced for Kendrick Lamar and even come to the attention of Barack Obama. Along with establishing his own nonprofit foundation, he keeps up a busy release schedule. No wonder Drake paid him the highest compliment: “You are looking at one of the smartest, greatest, most legendary artists of our generation.”
Early Life.
Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born on January 28, 1985, at a U.S. Army base in Frankfurt, then in West Germany. His father, an African American soldier, left his mother, a white German postal worker, when Cole was a baby. She moved with him and his older brother, Zach, to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the family lived in trailer parks as she struggled to make ends meet. His mom eventually remarried — Cole's stepfather was also in the Army — and the family relocated to a nicer home. However, the marriage crumbled and the family lost the house as Cole was about to leave for college. His stepfather had become abusive, particularly toward Zach; after the marriage ended, Cole's mother became addicted to crack under the influence of a new boyfriend. It was in Fayetteville that Cole's passion for music found an early outlet when he joined the Terry Sanford Orchestra as a violinist. He also began to teach himself rapping and production, rapping first as Blaza, then as Therapist — “We used to look through the dictionary for rap names,” he recalled later — before hooking up with a local group called Bomm Sheltuh.
Roc Nation.
His debut mixtape, The Come Up, also came out in 2007. It was largely self-produced, but also saw him rapping over beats from Kanye West, Large Professor and Just Blaze. A track called "Lights Please" from his second mixtape, The Warm Up (2009), came to the attention of the producer and music exec Mark Pitts, who played it to Jay Z. Ironically, Cole had attempted to give Jay Z a copy himself, after waiting outside a studio to meet his idol for three hours — only to be rebuffed with the line “Man, I don't want that trash.” But Pitts had Jay Z's ear, and the mogul was impressed with what he heard. Cole signed to Roc Nation and started to appear as a guest on tracks by Wale, Jay Z and Talib Kweli.