North Carolina rapper and producer J Cole reclines on the sofa of his K West suite lounging in his hoodie, jeans and Jordans. He is chilling with his entourage before going to support rapper Drake at the Apollo.
Cole was born in Frankfurt, Germany, though moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina before the age of one. “Yeah, I suppose that means I’m the best rapper to come out of Europe,” he modestly states, then laughs.
He started rapping at the age of twelve when Tupac, Eminem and Canibus were defining a new generation of hip-hop. Cole smiles as he tells the infamous story from his early days of the night he spent in the rain waiting to give Jay-Z a demo.
“At the time I was working in a call centre trying to get people to place ads in a newspaper. Jay –Z was about drop an album, ‘American Gangster’, so I cooked up some beats that night, made a track called ‘On Top Of The World’, and waited outside his studio.” Super nervous, Cole shyly tried to pass him the track, before the rap star erupted: ‘I don’t want that shit!’. Ironically, Cole is now signed to the hip-hop maestro’s label Roc Nation.
Cole continues to work with more names of the rap elite – producers No I.D, Pharrell, Jim Jonsin and Salaam Remi feature on his next album. He has released three successful mix tapes that have caused much hype and attention in the US and he now hopes to break the UK.
His next goal would be to win a Grammy. “If I was up for an award at the Grammys I’d probably keep it super fresh, wear jeans and sneakers. Relaxed. Swagger.”
Words by Camilla Felici
Photo by Letty Schmiterlow
