{"id":22208,"date":"2010-12-21T18:53:17","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T17:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackouthiphop.com\/?p=22208"},"modified":"2010-12-21T19:09:45","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T18:09:45","slug":"j-cole-story-by-respect-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/j-cole-story-by-respect-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"J.Cole story by RESPECT. Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nRESPECT<\/a> magazine made an interview with J.Cole on the eve of the release of his Friday Night Lights mixtape. Peep why the Roc Boy has released another mixtape and what is he up to in the future.
\n
\nJ.Cole, the first hip-hop artist signed to Jay-Z\u2019s Roc Nation, is notoriously guarded. Still, he can\u2019t hide the fact that 2011 will be the year he earns his place in hip-hop history with a classic rap debut.
\nWords: Elliott Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

J.Cole hates telling Jay-Z stories. J.Cole is private. He\u2019s protective of his own personal and professional life. So the young North Carolina MC with the young company by the name of Dreamville is even more reticent about leaking any information related to Shawn Carter.<\/p>\n

But still. What happened on September 28, 2010, may just have changed the course of one of hip-hop\u2019s most promising careers. So Jermaine Lamarr Cole\u2019s got a story to tell.<\/p>\n

On that Tuesday, New York City\u2019s Radio City Music Hall was rockin\u2019. Drake brought Cole out on the main stage: special surprise guest. For over a year, the Internet has been flooded with rumors and hearsay pitting these two MCs against each other. The bloggers and the commenters want rivals (rivalries equal traffic), dreams of lyrical chokeholds and grimy subliminals, of who got ethered and who\u2019s the best ever. Of who\u2019s famous vs. who\u2019s Internet-famous. So it was mesmerizing to see Drake and Cole say eff all that and effortlessly co-exist, join forces and electrify the crowd. If these two dudes didn\u2019t really like each other, it was hard to tell.<\/p>\n

But you couldn\u2019t blame Cole if he was a tad distracted.<\/p>\n

That very afternoon before the show, in the bedroom of his Big Apple apartment, Cole recorded a new song. He instantly thought: This is that one. This could be the hit that raises his profile and brings his dream of releasing a classic debut album to the masses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a producer,\u201d he says. \u201cBrian Kidd\u2014who lives in Atlanta on a fuckin\u2019 hill. He played me some of the most incredible beats I\u2019ve ever heard,\u201d Cole says this while on a tour bus rolling through Washington, D.C. It\u2019s late October and he\u2019s on the way to a Howard University Homecoming gig on a Saturday night. \u201cAbout the fourth one Kidd played, I knew right away. I started writing right there. And finished it on a plane back to New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

So: Cole is in NYC, that Tuesday night after the Drake show. Inspired by his Dreamville business partner Ibrahim H., a guy he\u2019s been down with since his St. John\u2019s University college days, Cole decided to hunt down Mr. Carter. Texts are exchanged and then Cole is headed over to a fancy East Village nightclub called Butter, where a birthday celebration for Young Jeezy was dying down. \u201cHe was upstairs eating, like the Godfather, by himself at a table. I walked up to him. I ain\u2019t have too many words. I was like, \u2018Yo I think I got something special, I just need you to hear it.\u2019 I told him I wanted Trey Songz to get on the hook and I handed him my iPod. His reaction was so fuckin\u2019 crazy. That was probably the craziest reaction I ever got from him on any song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hov\u2019s scrunched up face and exuberant exclaims enforced that the decision Cole made to force a meeting was correct. \u201cOut of all the songs I brought him I think that\u2019s what he was lookin\u2019 for,\u201d Cole says. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019d never done, a different sound. Like nothing I\u2019ve done\u2014but in a great way. This is the culmination of all lessons. I stepped out of my own box. This record will open up so many doors for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

October 6, 2010. New York City.<\/strong> A day before Cole\u2019s takes off on a 35-city Fall U.S. tour with no name.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the status of the album?<\/strong>
\nMan, I thought my album would\u2019ve been out right around now. But one thing I\u2019ve learned in this game is you never know anything. I remember when they gave me the release date of October 26. I was so hyped. But I soon knew that wasn\u2019t gonna happen. I haven\u2019t even had a consistent three weeks in the studio. I\u2019m blessed enough to be able to go out on the road. I get a good week in the studio but then I\u2019m off for a show. But I still managed to pull off what I think is an incredible album.<\/p>\n

How did \u201cWho Dat\u201d end up becoming the first release?<\/strong>
\nEveryone at Roc Nation was asking, \u2018Can we work something?\u2019 and \u2018Who Dat\u2019 was the first record I did that had this incredible energy about it. My team in the studio was like, Whoa, this sounds special. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a single, but damn this just sounds special. It stood out immediately. My manager, Mark Pitts, always says that on your first one all you gotta do is strike a nerve. It don\u2019t gotta be a No. 1. Even though it wasn\u2019t a smash hit, they\u2019ll never forget \u201cWho Dat.\u201d Mark said, it was like Smoothe Da Hustler\u2019s \u201cBroken Language.\u201d It turns heads.<\/p>\n

Still\u2014you weren\u2019t disappointed it wasn\u2019t a big radio record?<\/strong>
\nThe fact is, as many radio stations in as many places that did play \u2018Who Dat\u2019 exceeded my expectations. Now that I know the game and I\u2019ve been on these stations, I know who\u2019s gonna play what records, and who\u2019s not. I refuse to be the artist that drops a super-duper great album, but it goes under the radar. Or it sells however many thousands, but there was no radio record so the masses didn\u2019t get a chance to hear it. I refuse to be that artist.<\/p>\n

What about the second single, \u201cBlow Up\u201d?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s like a placeholder record. They\u2019re working \u2018Blow Up,\u2019 but you know that was another one of those records that when I played it for everybody, the reaction was like, Oh, shit. I ain\u2019t told anybody, but I don\u2019t even know if it\u2019s gonna make the album.<\/p>\n

Why did you decide to create the mixtape, Friday Night Lights?<\/strong>
\nI got fans waiting for music and I was like, if I can\u2019t deliver them my album this year\u2014or even a release date\u2014I should at least give them this. To hold them over for four months or so. I\u2019m sittin\u2019 on so many incredible songs, whether or not they were gonna make the album. Let me put something out!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the meaning behind the title?<\/strong>
\nFriday Night Lights sums up that feeling before the big game. It\u2019s definitely an extension from my last mixtape, The Warm Up. But now it\u2019s like he\u2019s on the team, and it\u2019s that anxiousness to get in the game and prove himself. Also\u2014some fear. I had to redo songs, I had to really just suck it up and realize that a certain song might be a better fit for the mixtape than the album.<\/p>\n

Have the frequent leaks of your material hurt?<\/strong>
\nA leak will make you fall out of love with a song. I fall outta love with my songs over time. Once I\u2019ve heard them and done them I\u2019m so busy thinking about what\u2019s the next song, I forget how special these songs are that I have. I wish I was better at appreciating my songs.<\/p>\n

I heard you have a really deep song about a girl having an abortion.<\/strong>
\nYeah, that\u2019s an exception. It\u2019s definitely on the album. I\u2019ve been saving that one. I have a video for that and everything. I\u2019ve been sitting on the concept for damn near two years. If I get to where I want to be in my career then it could be like Eminem\u2019s \u201cStan.\u201d It\u2019s one of those really emotional stories. It\u2019s an immediate experience of some friends of mine, but I actually did have a similar situation, though not to the extent of the song. It\u2019s in the vein of Common\u2019s \u201cRetrospect for Life.\u201d Not that I based it off of that, but you can\u2019t help but compare it to that.<\/p>\n

I listened to your first mixtape, The Come Up, the other day. The underlying theme of it seems to be your dedication to your mom and your desire for her to have a better life. Like it was you and she against the world.<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s how it always felt. Even when I had a stepfather, it was always like me, my older brother, and my mother against everybody else. Early on, I seen my mom real, real broke, working as a waitress. A single mother, trying to raise two kids, after she divorced my father, when I was two. They were both from the Army. Then she got a good-ass job working at the post office. Then she got remarried.<\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t have any type of father-son relationship with your stepdad?<\/strong>
\nWith him, nah. I mean I thought I did. I looked up to him, but I probably didn\u2019t ever let him know that. He did some foul shit at the end, so I never respected him after that. He disciplined, he whooped us. I never really looked at him like no father. But I still have to say that things were pretty good. We had stability at first but it all crashed and burned right as I was going to college [at NYC\u2019s St. John\u2019s University]. That\u2019s when The Come Up was being made. I was still early in school, and that\u2019s when she was really hurting because now she\u2019s back on her own and both her sons are gone. She\u2019s in debt, house foreclosed. I was watching her, literally, trying to stay afloat. That\u2019s where a lot of the anger from Come Up came from.<\/p>\n

Channeling out through your music.<\/strong>
\nThat was the most angry I\u2019ve ever been. On that mixtape. But I don\u2019t feel like that no more. I\u2019m at peace with how I grew up. Because it was nice. It wasn\u2019t like I never saw my father. There\u2019s kids way worse off than me.<\/p>\n

Is school something you were always was attracted to?<\/strong>
\nMy mom. She had such an influence on me. She put such an emphasis on school. I loved the reaction that she would give me when I came home with some straight A\u2019s. I lived for that. I wanted to have the highest score in the class. I was just good at soaking up information quick, but my passion was elsewhere. At a young age it was basketball, and then my passion turned to rapping.<\/p>\n

How much of a culture shock was it when you moved to New York?<\/strong>
\nIt was crazy. Ridiculous. On my own, bro. I was fuckin\u2019 silly. I remember my best female friend from high school used to ask me, \u2018You going to New York? You crazy? Aren\u2019t you scared?\u2019 And I used to front. But man, I was 18 years old going to somewhere I\u2019d never really been. Living in a dorm\u2014all I knew was living with my moms up until that point. For me to do that, it really just took, like a blind confidence that I didn\u2019t really have, but I was telling myself I had it. The first time I came to New York I told myself that I was gonna move there. I just knew. I visited once when I was 13 or 14. I said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna move here one day.\u2019 I didn\u2019t really know \u2018til probably about 16 or 17. I was like, I can go to school in New York, college. It clicked I guess [snaps fingers]. Like: college. I could do it. It was almost like an excuse to go to New York City, and nobody\u2019s even gotta know what I\u2019m going for. Because I wasn\u2019t telling people, \u2018Yeah I\u2019m gonna go get a deal.\u2019 I was like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna go to college in New York.\u2019 But inside I knew what it was for.<\/p>\n

The girls think this nigga\u2019s handsome.<\/strong> But sorry ladies, young Mr. Cole is taken. He did a great job keeping his relationship status under wraps until gossip site YBF reported that Jermaine, 25, got down on bended knee on October 16, 2010. After the story was published, Melissa Heholt confirmed she and Cole have been together six years, but that they are not, in fact, engaged.<\/p>\n

In your song, \u201cKnock On Wood\u201d you rap about missing NBA All-Star Weekend to spend time with your girl. How do you balance your career responsibilities with obligations to your relationship?<\/strong>
\nI speak on those things to get that shit off my chest. Because I know that\u2019s something mad people are going through. Balancing career and a relationship or just juggling a relationship, period. But yeah, I\u2019m trying. Taking that one day at a time. And it\u2019s great\u2014luckily\u2014you know.<\/p>\n

You met her in New York?<\/strong>
\nYeah, that\u2019s a college sweetheart. That\u2019s like so serious I won\u2019t even speak on that. I\u2019m not saying you was gonna go any further, but I\u2019m not gonna go any further and probably never will \u2018cause that\u2019s a really serious relationship, not one of those, \u201cThese niggas are dating.\u201d I\u2019ve been in a relationship so long, man, that sometimes that shit is a marriage, like damn near it. It takes a big sacrifice on both sides. Obviously on the person whose career is not in this business, it\u2019s gonna be a very big sacrifice. I guess that\u2019s the answer to your original question, it\u2019s just a time sacrifice. But so far, so good. I know there\u2019s no science to this shit, but I know we\u2019re already beatin\u2019 the odds.<\/p>\n

When you talk about the album, you throw out the term \u2018classic.\u2019 Everybody hopes for that, but what makes you keep articulating it?<\/strong>
\nMaybe I\u2019ll speak it into existence [laughs]. But it\u2019s just telling you where my mind is. It gives insight into how high my standards are, and why I let some of these songs go that somebody else would be like, \u201cYo, how are you not gonna put that on the album?\u201d My standards are a little higher.<\/p>\n

You came out onstage at his Radio City set. You recently agreed to do some European tour dates together. But the public still seems hell-bent on makin\u2019 you and Drake rivals. Does that affect your personal relationship with him?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t think it affects it. I\u2019m aware of it. I think he\u2019s aware of it too. But it\u2019s not something that\u2019s really spoken on. But moments like at Radio City crush all the talk of any kind of beef. I think it\u2019s just a reflection of how excited people are. I feel like we\u2019re probably the first two artists in a long time that they\u2019ve been able to be so excited about.<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham sent me a text, said you guys were making a song together called \u201cThe Luckiest People.\u201d Can you confirm?<\/strong>
\nHell yeah. That shit is dope. I\u2019m recording my verse. Drake is one of the people I really wanted to work with as soon as I got myself to the place where I needed to be. He got himself there. He worked super hard. Those are the type of people I wanna work with. I wanna feel like I earned it.<\/p>\n

Via RR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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