20 Things you don’t know about J Cole

1.  J Cole’s real Jermaine Lamarr Cole.

2.  J Cole was born January 28, 1985 in the 97th General Hospital at a United States Army base in Frankfurt, West Germany.

3.  J Cole father is African-American and served in the United States Army, who left the family when Cole was still young.

4.  At the age of 8 months, Cole relocated to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was raised by his mother, aunt and cousin.

5.  Cole grew up in a multi-ethnic environment. His childhood revolved around a love for both basketball and rap music.

6.  Cole started rapping at the age 12, becoming serious about it at the age of 15.

7.  J Cole hooked up with a local group called Bomm Sheltuh, which included rappers Nervous Reck and FilthE Ritch. Around this time he added record production to his repertoire and his stage name was Therapist.

8.  J Cole attended Terry Sanford High School and decided to study guitar under the well-known artist Mark Ebert.

9.  J Cole graduated from high school in 2003. He concluded that he had a better chance of getting a record deal in New York City, so he chose to attend St. John’s University on an academic scholarship.

10.  J Cole Inspired mostly by rappers Canibus and Eminem, Cole developed a love for telling stories in his lyrics

11.  By the age of 17, he was posting songs on various internet forums under the moniker “Therapist” Cole stood outside of Jay-Z’s Roc the Mic Studio for three hours in order to give him a beat called “On Top of the World” he sampled by Idris Muhammad, so that his mentor-to-be could use it. However, when Jay-Z came out of his building he shunned the up-and-coming rapper.

12.  He released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, on June 15, 2009 to positive reviews. Cole appeared on Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint 3 (2009), on the track “A Star Is Born.”

13.  In early 2010, Cole was chosen as one of Beyond Race Magazine’s “50 Great Breakthrough 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 2010 version of Top Ten Freshmen

14.  In April 2011, “HiiiPoWeR”, a song Cole produced for Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80 (2011) was released.

16.  On February 24, 2012 J. Cole reached two million followers on Twitter, he celebrated by releasing the song “Grew Up Fast.”

17.  On November 13, 2012, Cole released a promotional single for the album entitled “Miss America.” Cole stated he hoped “Miss America” would shift music in a different direction

18.  J. Cole performed for the first time in Africa during the Big Brother Africa 7 opening ceremony on 6 May 2012, alongside Camp Mulla, P-Square, Naeto C, Flavour N’abania, Davido and Aemo E’Face

19.  Born Sinner sold 297,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, finishing approximately 30,000 copies short of Kanye West’s Yeezus. As of September 19, 2013, the album has sold 599,000 copies in the United States.

20.  J Cole was invited to Harvard University to spearhead an hour-long lecture titled “The Next Move: A Conversation With J. Cole,” where he spoke with students about his early influences, dreams of playing professional basketball in the NBA and lyrical inspiration.