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Jermaine Cole has continued to impress and grow on me the more I've listened to him; to the point where I now consider him up there with some of my favourite rappers. Why? Cole simply spits from the heart, whilst effortlessly covering a huge range of relatable topics within his Discography. When it comes to Personal tracks, Home City tracks, Relationship tracks, or simply tracks where he's just showing off his lyrical ability; Cole's got it covered. Of course, then we've got his cleverly constructed Trilogies: 'Dollar & a Dream' and 'Simba'.

Through these two particular 3-part specials, we get to relate to Jermaine's road of rap as we see him progress as an artist from a Prince to the King he's so eager to be. Despite his lyrical ability, Cole has also established himself as a top producer, clearly taking influence from Mr West whilst also integrating his own style, making his work incredibly individual and predominantly within his own control. His ambition can hardly be ignored either, and it's this incredibly focused and driven mentality which has moulded Cole into a new role model for young aspiring persons all over the world who strive for their Dreams to come true.

Recently there has been plenty of hype surrounding teenage rappers; but until just last month, I had no idea that there was a track on the internet (obviously it's already on Rap Genius) in which we get to hear a 15 year old J. Cole, despite being released under his old name, The Therapist. The track is called 'The Storm', and at a first listen the young, tender voice is obviously a different tone from the fresh sounding flow that Cole delivers today. But despite the lack of a voice-drop, Cole was still dropping some sick lyrics back then and it's evident that from being a fully-fledged teen, Jermaine has had a passion and thirst for rapping about arguably one of men's biggest complexities: beautiful women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouqPDc1f_QM
An early example of J. describing the beauty and voluptuousness of a fine female is when he spits the lyrics:

"A true dime piece describing her, brown eyes
Caramel skin, thick thighs, goes beyond speech"

Clearly Cole is using his High-School English skills to create the vision of a caramel skinned beauty, whilst also recognising that this girl is so beautiful she 'goes beyond speech'. Plainly, from a young age Cole is able to capture his listeners' imagination by creating vivid images to which we can relate. Another favourite line from this rare track is when Cole says:

"Now the big question is when's he gonna pop it?"

This is extremely clever wordplay for a young boy, playing on the classic 'big question' phrase which is typically associated with proposal. The Therapist turns the question on its head; so that the listener believes 'the big question' is actually, 'when will he pop the big question?'

Cole also uses the (bracketed) lyrics at the end of certain lines so that he can include the female's responses to his bars; integrating the implied listener into the song as if a conversation between male and female were occurring. This isn't to say that J. Cole was the first rapper to incorporate this technique; there has been implied listeners integrated into poetry throughout history, but still, we are talking about a 15 year old boy at this point....

Now, I've read comments all over the internet in which people spurn and shun Cole for being too emotional and overly-sensitive. For me, Cole's more personal, heartfelt tracks can be some of his most poignant and powerful. But what Cole manages to do so fluently, is incorporate deeper issues and human emotions into songs in which the topics wouldn't typically include them. A perfect example of this would be one of Cole's most popular and (in my opinion) best tracks: Lights Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dyPeGDeS3o
With currently over 7,500,000 hits on YouTube, Lights Please has proved to be one of Cole's most successful releases and is a firm fan favourite. But this isn't to say that because this track was a mainstream success, Cole "sold out" the game like other rappers have done, opting for a more Pop-Rap route to the $$$. The track was first released on his Warm Up mixtape; the tape that famously caught the attention of the H.O.V. back in 2009. Once The Warm Up was in its final stages, Jay made J. his new Roc Nation label mate, and it can be stated that Lights Please may have had a deciding factor in Jiggas decision to sign up Jermaine. But I digress; Lights Please is a great Hip-Hop track, with a simple, yet extremely effective drum beat, a sporadic melody line and an unforgettable hook. What's the subject content? Of course it's about J. getting down to business with a girl; but delve a little deeper and the track also offers the listener an insightful sub textual message about life's complexities.

Cole is a conscious rapper. He's conscious of his lyrics, his flow, his beats, his other tracks and most importantly his own consciousness. He explains that 'the sad thing fuckin' with [the girl from Lights Please] is the chick ain't even have brains, dummy like a bitch'. It's apparent from these lyrics that Cole feels somewhat disappointed that he's hooked up with a girl with whom he struggles to maintain a stimulating conversation. He hyperbolises this distress by claiming that she doesn't even have a brain, and if she did, then she doesn't use it properly. Despite the intimate situation he finds himself in, Cole still wants to question the bigger things in life such as how they 'live broke on the boulevard', but in answer to this, the girl just wants him to 'unhook her bra'. By raising serious issues and life questions to this girl at this moment, Cole highlights the importance of this type of shit to him as a person. He then cleverly juxtaposes this line with her merely wanting to get undressed and get it on. There is evidently an underlying theme of the importances of life here, whilst at the same time, the power of sexual persuasion on a man's mind is also explored. A deep and meaningful conversation is therefore dismissed in favour sexual pleasure and desire.

then speaks for all straight men when he highlights sex as 'that proud feelin' we get knowin' that pussy is ours'. Obviously, via this line, Cole is simplifying what every man feels when he gets some, and that is the sense of achievement that the girl is finally comfortable enough to get intimate with him. Cole's bold statement also emphasizes how fast men lose their logic to their impulse. The female's vagina evidently has influence/power over him; however a proud masculine feeling is still produced because of the words she is moaning to Cole during their intercourse. But the intercourse is bittersweet (as outlined in the RG explanation) because the sex temporarily gives him pride and satisfaction; the 2 things he failed to obtain when he attempts to speak of real world issues attempting to enlighten her. The classic hook then reinforces the idea of Consciousness and Sex Drive intertwined, painting the girl out to be some kind of angelic figure of redemption when the lights are off, with J. living completely in the moment. The switching off of lights can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the way this girl thinks. Without light, she is blind to all the corruption and dishonesty in the world.

When we get taken into the 2nd verse, we are told that the pair are 'in the hotel, mirrors on the ceilin''. What's clever here is that if the hook symbolises the girls mind, the mirror acts as a metaphor for Cole's. He can see the reflection of himself with this girl, and this gives him chance to literally reflect upon his impulsive actions within his already philosophical mind. To make things better/worse, 'she says she wanna blow L's' with Cole, which clearly excites him, but also makes him question whether or not it would be a good idea with his mind already incredibly active. Much like in the Cole World album bonus track: Daddy's Little Girl, she wants to demonstrate to Cole that she can live the way he does and wants to prove to him that she can smoke weed as good as anyone (this bitch want's an 'L' baby!!) This is another example both of Cole using a call-and-response like set of lyrics between him and the girl, but also highlighting again the theme of Sense & Sensibility, or logic over emotion.

When we move towards the end of the 2nd verse, another serious issue is raised by Cole's consciousness. The following lyrics are incredibly powerful to anyone who has ever had to live without a father figure:

'And ain't it shameful, how niggas blame hoes for givin' birth
To a baby that took two to make; coward nigga you a fake
How you gonna look in your son's face and turn your back
Then go start another family, dawg, what type of shit is that?'

The lyrics echo 2Pac's 'Brenda's got a Baby', and it's well known that Cole is a big Pac fan, sampling his work on his track 'Enchanted' for example. These lines also foreground and foreshadow the ideas behind his track 'Lost Ones' which was to appear on his album, re-enforcing the statement that Cole is very aware of his own work and likes to link subject matters focusing on different perspectives. With these lyrics, Cole takes a step back from his emotions and opts to view things objectively from an intellectual perspective. This is an example of Cole standing up for what is morally right in terms of parenthood; more than likely because of his lack of Paternal support which we are openly told about on many of his tracks.

But once more, J. underlines the contrast between himself and his current lover, to the point where he gives her the final lines of his track, telling Cole that she knows he "wanna change the world but for the night please [can he] just reach over and hit the lights please". Bringing things back to the girl's perspective, this final line of the song clearly highlights the girl's shallow views on what Cole has offered as food-for-thought. All she cares about is the sex, more than likely because of Jermaine's social status as a rapper. What is interesting though, is that even though the line proves her shallow nature; it's also a way of Cole letting his listeners know subtly, that it is his plan to change the world (rap game) through his music.

I saw in an interview once, that J. Cole had always promised his fans at his gigs that Lights Please would be on his album when it dropped in 2011. Certain fans weren't happy that Cole included songs on the album which had already appeared on his mixtapes, but you have to take into account that the fans he gained from his album release may never have heard tracks such as 'In The Morning' and of course, the track that has been discussed. Besides, it's not like it affected his album sales, in the week beginning October 15th 2011, Cole World: The Sideline Story hit the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 and less than three months after his debut hit stores; J. Cole received gold certification for sales of more than 500,000 units of the LP.

But moving onto the present day, we've heard Cole drop 'The Cure' and also tease fans about his 2nd album with his lyric from the DJ Khaled track 'They Ready' in which we are told that the rapper is 'masterminding [his] second album'. The track features the incredibly talented Kendrick Lamar, with whom Cole has struck up a close relationship as of late, with talk since last year of a joint album being worked on once Kendrick's solo has dropped. If this track is anything to go by, I literally cannot wait for further details on this project.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQDF3NUheZM
COLE WORLD!

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J. Cole, the Conscious Rapper: A UK Perspective

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Jermaine Cole has continued to impress and grow on me the more I've listened to him; to the point where I now consider him up there with some of my favourite rappers. Why? Cole simply spits from the heart, whilst effortlessly covering a huge range of relatable topics within his Discography.

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Synopsis

J. Cole is an MC and producer who has achieved phenomenal success over the last few years, a result of the long hours he spent grinding hard on the mixtape scene and sharing songs on internet forums. 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. As well as 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."

Born in Germany, Raised in North Carolina

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 in North Carolina; she struggled to make ends meet, taking multiple jobs and living with her sons in trailer parks. She eventually remarried - Cole's stepfather was also in the army - and the family relocated to a nicer house, where they remained until Cole was about to leave for college, when the marriage crumbled and the house was foreclosed. His stepfather had become abusive, particularly towards Cole's brother 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. He held down a number of part-time jobs as a teenager while he honed his production skills, including a stint at an ice hockey rink where he had to dress up as a kangaroo mascot. After graduating from high school, Cole moved to New York and attended St John's University, graduating in 2007 with a degree in communications, magna cum laude.

Getting Signed to 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 shit." 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.

A third mixtape in 2010, Friday Night Lights, consisted of songs rejected from Cole's debut studio album. That album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, finally saw the light of day in 2011 and would go on to be certified platinum. Critics hailed a promising artist, with the LA Times praising the "satisfying confidence" of his rhymes and the "slickly inventive beats."

Going No. 1: '2014 Forest Hills Drive' & '4 Your Eyez Only'

Cole's sophomore album, Born Sinner, had its release date moved numerous times so as not to clash with other big releases. When it eventually came out in June 2013, it was another success. Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent were among the guests, on an album that was warmly, but not ecstatically, received.

With momentum building, 2014 Forest Hills Drive came out in December 2014 and premiered at number one on the Billboard 200. It would be first 1 million-selling album, despite a lack of prior singles or marketing. It won several awards, including Billboard Rap Album of the Year, and was later certified double platinum. This was impressive for an album that had no guest appearances, although some critics felt his political stances in real life were not reflected on an album that often strayed into sex rhymes. "It's time for the Cole who marches in the streets to start showing up on record," said Rolling Stone, referring to Cole's visit to Ferguson in August 2014 to meet those protesting the shooting of Michael Brown.

His fourth studio album, 4 Your Eyez Only, came out just before Christmas 2016 and also went to No. 1. Despite a minor controversy over what some saw as lyrical barbs directed at Kanye West and Drake, it was another guest-free set that found favor. The New York Times thought that by freeing himself of the shackles of big-name guest stars, he could take his own artistic path, noting that the album "feels as if it were made without the slightest concession to what's happening elsewhere in the genre."

Establishing His Own Label, Nonprofit Work

As a thoughtful, contemplative rapper, J. Cole generally stays away from beefing with other artists or living a gaudy, front-page lifestyle. He runs the Dreamville Records label with his former St. John's University classmate Ibrahim Hamad, releasing music by up-and-coming artists including Omen, Bas and Cozz. The label shares a name with his Dreamville Foundation, a non-profit Cole established in his hometown. Set up to "bridge the gap between the worlds of opportunity and the urban youth of Fayetteville, NC," it runs a series of events and programs, including a reading club and essay contests.

Cole is married to Melissa Heholt, with whom he is rumored to have had a daughter. He recently purchased the childhood home after which he named his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album, with the intention of developing it into temporary rent-free accommodation for single mothers. Perhaps it is actions like this that have made him a rapper that even presidents can praise. Cole was invited to the White House by its prior incumbent in spring 2016, something he rapped about on the track "High for Hours." Obama later commented: "This is the benefit of having teenage daughters, I actually keep up... I love J. Cole." Endorsements don't come much bigger.
(Profile photo of J. Cole by Isaac Brekken/WireImage)

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J. Cole is an MC and producer who has achieved phenomenal success over the last few years, a result of the long hours he spent grinding hard on the mixtape scene and sharing songs on internet forums. 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.

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"4 Your Eyez Only" the album is told mostly through a character that's a composite of two men Mr. Cole grew up with from Fayetteville, and with whom he's still in touch. He's a tough guy, a criminal stereotype, except inverted. "The people that I know that live that life and come from that life, or even used to live that life, there's so much more than that," Mr. Cole said. "They have multiple sides, and the side that is the strongest is love" - of mothers, of friends, of girlfriends, of children. The album ends in a heart-rending nine-minute apologia written from the character to his daughter, offering explanations for his bad choices and asking for forgiveness. The album's goal, Mr. Cole said, was "to humanize the people that have been villainized in the media."

By this point in the conversation, he'd settled into the basement of the Sheltuh, the home in a far-out suburb he and his associates have rented for the last couple of years that has served as a hang spot and the de facto center of operations for his label, Dreamville. On one wall were record shelves teeming with alphabetized 12" singles from hip-hop's golden age. He bought the collection, a kind of spiritual decoration, from Nervous Reck of Bomm Sheltuh, one of his teenage hip-hop idols.

These are the records, and the era - the 1990s - that Mr. Cole harks back to, and a sound that is a far cry from where the genre has moved in recent years. Still, his commitment has been undimmed. "I understand that what I'm doing is what I don't see, is what I would like to see being done but is not being done," he said.

Even though he found conventional success early in his career, he found the life he'd willed himself into to be ungratifying. "Any reasonable person would be ecstatic," he said. "I didn't have that feeling."

And so began the choices that led to him becoming a conscientious objector to the dictates of rap stardom. Rather than continuing to attempt to analyze what might make a hit, a process Mr. Cole said he found unrewarding - "Trying to prove that I could do something that they don't think I can, it was a very sad place when I look back" - he began making music at home, on his couch, only coming to the studio for the final stages of recording and polishing.

The decisions that emanated from that friction ended up setting the stage for a striking personal and aesthetic turnabout. He got married, and he and his wife, Melissa, recently had a baby. (He declined to reveal the sex or the name.) He now has control of his master recordings. And on "4 Your Eyez Only," he digs in to deeply emotional narratives, and continues his penchant for tackling left-field subject matter, like "Foldin Clothes," about the thrills of domesticity. "It's a celebration of growing up," he said. "I chose this path, and damn it feels good," comparing its energy to how other rappers might celebrate a new Bentley.

It also transformed him from a student of the great storytelling rappers to a teacher. That's clearest on "False Prophets," released separately just before the album (it wasn't included because it disrupted the narrative), which found Mr. Cole diagnosing the neuroses of his peers and heroes without naming them, though the internet filled in the blanks quickly.

Rappers rap about other rappers all the time - subliminal insult, direct attack - but rarely from a place of love. "That speaks to the state of us as a people," he said. "For so long my mind state was, I have to show how much better than the next man I am through these bars. Who's the best? Let me prove it. And it's just like, damn, I'm really feeding into a cycle of keeping black people down, I'm really feeding into that."

Mr. Cole knows that the disease of stardom inspires cries for help, and now, instead of judging from afar, he wonders, "There's nobody around you to listen? There's nobody listening?"

Listening is his new métier. The way Mr. Cole presents in his HBO special, which he directed with Scott Lazer, is primarily as observer, not actor. He returns to Jonesboro, Ark., where his father is from, and the two men visit a community center that serves as a makeshift museum of local black history. In another scene, in Ferguson, Mr. Cole watches as two men argue about government obstacles to black progress. Throughout the show, apart from when he's rapping, Mr. Cole's voice is barely heard, but his eyes are taking it all in.

"I felt like it would be mad powerful for black people to see black people talking to each other. And you see a rapper who's considered one of the biggest in the game, just listening."

He added, "These are people that never get to be heard, by the world or even by each other."

That lack of representation, Mr. Cole said, can lead to potentially catastrophic misunderstandings. In March of last year, police raided the Sheltuh; Mr. Cole believes a neighbor was fearful it was a drug den. Security footage that captures the raid is used in the HBO special, showing dozens of heavily armed men forcibly entering the building only to find, well, nothing. (A ticket was issued for a small amount of marijuana found on the premises, he said.)

"I wrote six songs that weekend," Mr. Cole noted wryly - they included the powerful "Neighbors," from the new album.

After speaking for a couple of hours, Mr. Cole wandered back upstairs and chatted with a friend who'd recently spoken to a friendly neighbor, who took pains to note that she was not the one who had called the authorities. Mr. Cole, who prefers privacy, was frustrated that the locals had caught on to his presence. But he also saw it as an opportunity.

The HBO special was around the corner, and if his neighbors were inspired to watch it, "they're going to listen to black people for a hour," he said. "See how human they are, and see black men walk around with their daughters, and get a whole different perspective."

"If I'm listening," he said, "why can't you listen?"

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J. Cole, the Platinum Rap Dissident, Steps Back From the Spotlight

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"4 Your Eyez Only" the album is told mostly through a character that's a composite of two men Mr. Cole grew up with from Fayetteville, and with whom he's still in touch. He's a tough guy, a criminal stereotype, except inverted.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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J. Cole has opened up about his fifth studio album, , in a rare interview. Speaking with Paul Cantor for Vulture, Cole revealed that the mysterious "kiLL edward," the only featured guest on KOD, is, in fact, his alter ego, and it's inspired by his stepfather Edward. He also described how watching Kendrick Lamar on his tour motivated his own album. "Kendrick's show gave me chills because I got to see what it was like to have a hit album performed, and it set off a desire," Cole said.

In addition, Cole shared further thoughts about the up-and-coming generation of young rappers-a topic that many fans believe he addressed on "1985 (Intro to "The Fall Off")," KOD 's closing track. "If you exclude the top three rappers in the game, the most popping rappers all are exaggerated versions of black stereotypes," Cole said. "Extremely tatted up. Colorful hair. Flamboyant. Brand names. It's caricatures, and still the dominant representation of black people, on the most popular entertainment format for black people, period."

According to Cantor, however, Cole "digs" controversial Florida rapper XXXTentacion, "f**** with" Ohio's Trippie Redd, and often has a song by Atlanta's Lil Baby stuck in his head. "I'm now in a place where I can hear people and get excited, like this kid is dope as fuck.... I wasn't there before-everybody was trash."

Elsewhere in the interview, Cole disclosed family advice he received from Dave Chappelle, and praised Donald Glover for his " Deadpool" script ("That was just a flex.... Like, Here, let me show you what I can do."). Read the full interview at Vulture.

Check out " 5 Takeaways From J. Cole's New Album, KOD" on the Pitch.

When K.O.D. dropped last Friday, on 4/20, it broke both Spotify and Apple Music streaming records for most streams in a day - 36.7 and 64.5 million , respectively - knocking out the previous record-holder, Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do." In the real world, too, it made a splash. Cole couldn't find a copy anywhere. "They sold out," Cole says, having come up empty at his local Target in Raleigh, North Carolina. "This is the first time I couldn't cop like 40 physical copies of my own shit."

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Design and share beautiful flyers just like this one! Spread the word with an online flyer. They're easy to make and impossible to mess up :) J. Cole has opened up about his fifth studio album, , in a rare interview.

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picture of passion...

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I am 16 i was born january 30 2002 im 5'2 i like the sport lacrosse i like sleeping and sometimes hang out with my friends because i like being home and sleeping and watching netflix and i enjoy doing makeup and trying new looks with it.