J. Cole
Jermaine Lamarr Cole is an American rapper and record producer. Born in a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained attention as a rapper following the release of his debut mixtape, The Come Up, in early 2007. Intent on further pursuing a musical career, he signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation in 2009 and released two additional mixtapes: The Warm Up and Friday Night Lights to further critical acclaim as he garnered a wider following.
Each of Cole's studio albums have peaked atop the US Billboard 200, beginning with his debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story, and its follow-up, Born Sinner. Both met with critical acclaim, the albums spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top 40 singles "Work Out", "Power Trip", and "Crooked Smile". Despite commercial success, Cole departed from the pop-oriented sound of the albums in favor of conscious subject matter for his subsequent projects; themes of nostalgia, racial inequality, and materialism were explored respectively in his following releases: 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 4 Your Eyez Only and KOD. 4 Your Eyez Only yielded his furthest commercial success—selling an estimated 500,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, while the latter featured a then-record six simultaneous top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100—the first time a musical act achieved this feat since English rock band the Beatles in 1964. His sixth album, The Off-Season, was met with continued success and spawned the single "My Life", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Its chart success was matched by his guest appearance on the 2023 single "All My Life" by Lil Durk, and succeeded by his first song to top the chart, "First Person Shooter" by Drake that same year. The former also won Cole a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Self-taught on piano, Cole also acts as a producer alongside his recording career—having largely handled the production of his own projects—with credits on material for other artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Janet Jackson, Young Thug, Wale, and Mac Miller, among others. Cole's side ventures include his record label Dreamville Records, as well as its namesake media company and non-profit. The label, having signed artists including JID, Ari Lennox, Bas, and EarthGang, has released four compilation albums; their third, Revenge of the Dreamers III, debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. In January 2015, Cole began housing single mothers rent-free at his childhood home in Fayetteville.
Cole has won two Grammy Awards from seventeen nominations, a Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Album, three Soul Train Music Awards, and eight BET Hip Hop Awards. Each of his albums—including Revenge of the Dreamers III—have received platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Early life
Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born on January 28, 1985, at an American military base in Frankfurt, West Germany. His father, James Cole, is an African American veteran, who served in the US Army, and his mother, Kay, born in Michigan, is a white American who was a postal worker for the United States Postal Service. Cole's father later abandoned the family during his youth. At the age of eight months his mother moved with him and his older brother Zach to the United States, to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole grew up in a multi-ethnic environment, and when asked about how closely his ethnicity impacts him, Cole commented, "I can identify with white people, because I know my mother, her side of the family, who I love. But at the end of the day, never felt white. I can identify but never have I felt like I'm one of them. I identify more with what I look like, because that's how I got treated not necessarily in a negative way." During his youth, Cole expressed an affinity for basketball and music, and served as a first-chair violinist for the Terry Sanford Orchestra until 2003.Cole began rapping at the age of twelve, and saw it as an ideal profession in 2000, when his mother purchased an ASR-X musical sampler as a Christmas gift. During this period, Cole heightened emphasis on improving his production skills, later beginning initial production under the pseudonym Therapist. Cole later collaborated with local group Bomm Sheltuh, rapping and producing as a member of the group. Cole can be seen in the crowd of the 2006 documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party.
Upon graduating high school with a 4.2 GPA, Cole decided that his chances of securing a recording contract would be better in New York City. He moved there and accepted a scholarship to St. John's University. Initially majoring in computer science, Cole later switched to communications after witnessing the life of a lonely computer science professor. At the college, Cole was the president of Haraya, a pan-African student coalition. He graduated magna cum laude in 2007, with a 3.8 GPA. Despite graduating, Cole would officially receive his degree during a homecoming concert in 2015, revealing that he had owed money for a library book, causing the university to hold back from granting him his degree.
Cole later worked in various part-time jobs in Fayetteville, including a working ad salesman for a newspaper, a bill collector, a file clerk, and a kangaroo mascot at a skate rink.
His mother struggled with addiction after his stepfather left.
Musical career
1999–2008: Beginnings and early work
After becoming musically inspired by Canibus, Nas, Tupac, and Eminem, Cole and his cousin worked on developing their basic understanding of rhyming and wordplay. As well as this, they began to learn how to interpolate storytelling within their lyrics. By 14, Cole had various notebooks filled with song ideas, however, was unable to produce beats further than sampling. Cole's mother later purchased him the Roland TR-808 drum machine in order to further Cole's understanding of production. Over the next three years, he began posting songs on various internet forums under the moniker Blaza, but later switched to the name Therapist.Cole later expanded his production to create an entire CD's worth of instrumentals, and traveled to Roc the Mic Studio, hoping to play it for Jay Z while he was in recording sessions for American Gangster. Cole waited for over three hours, before being dismissed by Jay Z. Cole later used the CD as the backdrop for his debut mixtape, The Come Up.
2009–2010: Mixtapes and Roc Nation signing
J. Cole released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, on June 15, 2009, to positive reviews. Cole appeared on Jay Z's album The Blueprint 3, on the track "A Star Is Born". He is featured on both Wale's debut album, Attention Deficit and mixtape Back to the Feature, respectively. In January 2010, Cole, along with label mate Jay Electronica and Mos Def appeared on Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek's single, "Just Begun" for the follow-up of Reflection Eternal's album Train of Thought, titled Revolutions Per Minute. Cole also appeared on B.o.B's mixtape May 25, on the song "Gladiators", produced by The Alchemist.In early 2010, Cole was chosen as one of Beyond Race magazine's "50 Great Breakthrough Artists". He ranked 49, resulting in the cover story of the publication's #11 issue, as well as a Q&A for the magazine's site. He was also featured in XXL Magazine's 2010 version of the Top Ten Freshmen, a yearly publication focusing on new rappers. Cole began a college tour from March 19, 2010, to April 30, 2010, concluding in New Brunswick, NJ at Rutgers University's annual Rutgersfest. The tour also featured a stop at Syracuse University for a show with fellow rapper, Wiz Khalifa. On March 31, he performed a new song titled "Who Dat" and released the song as a single on April 30, 2010. Cole was also featured on Young Chris' song "Still The Hottest" as well as Miguel's debut single "All I Want Is You". Additionally, Cole was featured on a track titled "We On", a song that failed to make the final track list for DJ Khaled's Victory LP.
To celebrate the anniversary of the release of The Warm Up mixtape, J. Cole released a freestyle entitled "The Last Stretch" on June 15, 2010. On June 21 of that year, J. Cole premiered the music video to his first single "Who Dat" on the BET program 106 & Park. In August 2010, Cole was awarded the UMA Male Artist of the Year thanks to his heralded The Warm Up mixtape and a high-profile deal with Jay Z's label Roc Nation at the 2010 Underground Music Awards. In a July 2010 interview, J. Cole revealed three songs that would appear on his debut album: "Dreams", "Won't Be Long", and "Never Told", which was produced by No I.D. On October 30, 2010, a demo titled "I'm Coming Home" was leaked onto the Internet. Cole recorded the song as a reference track for Diddy, which later became "Coming Home" off Last Train to Paris. On November 12, 2010, J. Cole released his third official mixtape titled Friday Night Lights. The tape included features from Drake, Wale, and Omen with most of the production being handled by Cole himself.
2011–2012: ''Cole World: The Sideline Story''
Cole served as a supporting act for Drake on the Light Dreams and Nightmares UK Tour, from January 5–21, 2011. In April 2011, "HiiiPoWeR", a song Cole produced for Kendrick Lamar's Section.80 was released. The single was the first of many collaborations to come from the two. On May 22, 2011, Cole released a song entitled "Return of Simba", the third in the "Simba" series of songs, following "Simba" and "Grown Simba". Cole purposely avoided releasing his debut album's title for fear of inconsistency, only announcing that Jay-Z would be featured on his debut album. Cole then released his follow-up single to "Who Dat", the album's lead single, "Work Out" on June 15, 2011, in honor of the second anniversary of his highly acclaimed mixtape The Warm Up. The song, produced by Cole himself, samples "The New Workout Plan" by Kanye West and interpolates "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul. The song later became a hit single, topping several music charts.On July 31, Cole took to Twitter to announce Any Given Sunday, reminiscent of Kanye West's GOOD Fridays, a weekly free music giveaway. Cole wrote: "Every Sunday til the album drops I'll be back with something. Maybe just 1 song, maybe a video, depending on how I'm feeling." For the 3rd installment of the series, Cole took to Ustream to update fans about the album and play a select few tracks that didn't make the final track list. On August 15, the music video for "Work Out" premiered on YouTube, Vevo, and 106 & Park. On August 22, Cole released his debut album's cover art, designed by Alex Haldi for Bestest Asbestos, whom Cole recorded a song for, titled "Killers", for Haldi's mixtape The Glorification of Gangster. For the fourth installment on August 29, he released his debut album's track list, once again through Twitter.
On August 30, after an unfinished version had previously leaked, "Can't Get Enough" featuring R&B singer Trey Songz was released as the album's second single. While in Barbados for his last performance as the official opening act for Rihanna's Loud Tour, Cole shot the music video for "Can't Get Enough" with Songz and Rihanna, who provided a cameo appearance. The video, directed by Clifton Bell, was released on September 14, 2011. In addition, early on September 25, two days before his album's release, Cole released the music video for the iTunes bonus track "Daddy's Little Girl".
Cole World: The Sideline Story was released September 27, 2011, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 218,000 copies in its first-week of sales., the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments and sales of 500,000 copies. On February 7, 2012, the third and final single from Cole's debut album was released. The song, titled "Nobody's Perfect", features renowned female rapper Missy Elliott, marking her return to music., the album had sold 855,000 copies in the United States.
On October 24, 2011, during an interview with Hot 106's Rise & Grind morning show, Cole revealed he had begun working on his second studio album, with hopes of releasing it in June 2012. He also stated that the album would consist of songs that failed to make his debut, saying "I don't know how many, but I got songs that didn't make the last album that are automatically going to make this one," he said, revealing the release date: "June. End of June, maybe June." From November 6 to 8, Cole served as the supporting act for Tinie Tempah, appearing at Bournemouth International Centre; Liverpool Echo Arena, Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales; LG Arena, Birmingham, England; SECC Arena, Glasgow, Scotland; and MEN Arena, Manchester.