J COLE’S DEBUT-THE INSIDER STORY
The talented rapper J Cole has been wooing the music industry for years now. With an extraordinary talent to write rhymes and an uncanny ability to tell stories is a way that leaves the listener gripped to his every word, J Cole has been in love with rap music since he was thirteen. Inspired by the hip hop greats like Canibus and Tupac Shakur, Cole was only 15 when his notebooks could be found filled with his rhymes. But he had no beats of his own to record them with. That’s when his mother bought him an 808 beat machine so he could produce music himself. By the time he was 17, he was posting J Cole songs on various internet forums under the moniker “Therapist”.
Such was his dedication towards his music that he even outside of Jay-Z’s Roc the Mic Studio for hours and hoyrs just so that he could give him a beat called “On Top of the World” he had sampled by Idris Muhammad. He simply wanted his so that his mentor-to-be to use it. But nothing speaks of his extraordinary career and unworldly talent better than his songs.
After completing his graduation, Cole started releasing a series of mixtapes to grab the attention of the music world and establish himself as a singer. The first of these – ‘The Come Up’ and ‘The Warm Up’ on received positive reviews and a significant following. He appeared on the first J Cole music video of his first single “Who Dat”. This was the time when he started receiving critical acclaim and was even 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.
J. Cole released his third official mixtape titled Friday Night Lights. The tape included features from Drake, Wale & Omen with most of the production being handled by Cole himself. His next venture ‘Cole World-the sideline story’ was an even bigger hit. He came up with a song titled ‘Return of Simba’- the third in the “Simba series” following ‘Simba’ and ‘Grown Simba.’ The album was to be his official debut in the music world and even featured his mentor Jay-Z in one of the tracks.
In addition to this, two days before his album’s release, Cole released a J Cole music video for the iTunes bonus track “Daddy’s Little Girl”. Finally when his long-awaited debut album titled was released on September 27, 2011, it debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, Top R&B Albums and Top Rap Albums chart, selling more than 217,000 in its first week sales. He even received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 54th Grammy Awards. Now that’s what I call a sparkling debut!
J Cole pictures, J Cole music videos and J Cole songs have been creating ripples in the waters of the hip hop music industry and continue to rock the fans till this day. And hopefully he will continue to do so for many more years to come.
About the Author:
James Griffith is a freelance writer from London specialising in writing hiphop r&b music and uk grime music articles. Over the years he has developed an extensive knowledge of urban music and urban music artists and is considered one of the leading authorities on this subject. With a passion for Hip hop and R&B music since childhood, James Griffith brings great knowledge and a great understanding of this exciting music genre and his articles are both informative and entertaining too.
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