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 want people to follow their dreams, yes... but I'm not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers... I want to show them that there's so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.
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 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.
I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.
It's no coincidence that all the greatest rappers - whoever you put in your top five - I guarantee you they are great storytellers.
In hip-hop, there's not a lot of love. There's not a lot of love being spread. It's always like 'I'm stuntin' on you raps, or I'm better than you raps.' It's not a lot of 'Yo man, I idolize you raps.'
The music becomes more pure and soulful when it's true, and it has to be true these days with the way the internet works, and the way the game works, everyone wants authentic raps.
No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.
Rhyme patterns are nothing without meanings to the words. A lot of rappers can do those flows, but the raps aren't really about anything - which is cool sometimes, but to have the flow and the message is one of my favorite things.
I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I'm conscious of the mainstream without selling out.
In my mind, New York was the place where they had the underground rap shows and I could get in on some ciphers and just rap. This whole fantasy world I had created in my head about New York just from listening to the music my whole life, like, I'ma go up there and do that. But when I came up here, there was none of that, that scene was dead.
You hate it before you played it. I already forgave ya.
They say time is money but really it's not If we ever go broke, then time is all we got And we can't make that back, no you can't make that back
I gotta make a move, I gotta do this now, If they don't know your dreams, they can't shoot 'em down.