Artist Spotlight: J.COLE



J. Cole



Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985), better known as his stage name J. Cole, is an American rapper and producer. He is best known for being the first artist to be signed to Jay-Z's label Roc Nation.


Cole was born in Frankfurt, Germany and, before the age of 1, moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was raised by his mother. He is of mixed-race, being born to a Black father and a White mother. Cole attended Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, and graduated in 2003. He decided that he had a better chance of getting signed in New York City, so he attended St. John's University on an academic scholarship where he majored in communication and minored in business, graduating magna cum laude.


Cole started rapping at the age of 12 when his cousin showed him the basics of rhyming. Inspired by Canibus, Nas, Tupac Shakur and Eminem, J. Cole developed a love for telling stories in his lyrics. At age 15, J. Cole had notebooks filled with rhymes but not beats of his own to record them with. His mother bought him a beat machine so he could produce music himself. By the age of 17, he was posting songs on various internet forums under the moniker "Therapist".




Cole released his debut mixtape, The Come Up, in late 2007 after graduating college. J. Cole put his mixtape The Come Up hosted by DJ On Point including "soul filled sound beds, raw, energetic drums and an endless range of topics; everything from the carefree days of college to the seemingly endless plight of those have-nots scrapping for change" Jay-Z signed Cole after hearing one of the songs, "Lights Please."

Prior to releasing his second mixtape, Cole released the single, "Show Me Somethin'" for promotional purposes. He released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, on June 15, 2009. Following the release of The Warm Up, he released the freestyle "Back to the Topic."


Cole appeared on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint 3, on the track "A Star Is Born." He is featured on Wale's debut album, Attention Deficit in the song "Beautiful Bliss", after being featured on Wale's mixtape Back to the Feature. Cole has also stated that he worked with producers such as No I.D., Pharrell, Jim Jonsin and Salaam Remi for his upcoming debut album. Most recently, he was touring with Jay-Z on the Blueprint 3 tour. His debut album is scheduled for release in either November or December 2010 on Roc Nation and Columbia Records.


In early 2010, Cole was chosen as one of Beyond Race Magazine's "50 Emerging 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 Top Ten Freshmen.

In January 2010, Cole, along with Jay Electronica & 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, called Revolutions Per Minute. Cole has also appeared on B.o.B's mixtape May 25th (released in February 2010) on the song "Gladiators. On March 31st, he performed a new song titled "Who Dat", which will be the first single from his debut album. He later released the song on April 27, 2010. Cole was also featured on Young Chris' song "Still the Hottest" as well as Miguel's "All I Want Is You." Additionally, Cole was featured on "We On," a song that did not end up making the final tracklist for DJ Khaled's Victory.


J. Cole hit the road for a college tour from March 19, 2010 to April 30, 2010 concluding in New Brunswick, NJ at Rutgers University's annual Rutgersfest.


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 BET's 106 & Park.



In an interview, J. Cole revealed three song names from his upcoming album, including "Wet Dreams", "Won't Be Long", and "Never Told", which was produced by No I.D.[15] On October 30, 2010, a demo "I'm Coming Home," that Cole recorded as a reference track for Diddy's Last Train To Paris,[16] with many speculating that he would keep the track for his own debut album.


On November 12, 2010 J. Cole released his third official mixtape titled "Friday Night Lights" [12] The tape included features from Drake, Wale & Omen with most of the production being handled by Cole with a little help from Syience, Bink & L&X Music.

Website www.jcolemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/JCole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Cole