J. Cole

Jermaine Lamarr Cole, born on January 28, 1985, and known professionally as J. Cole, is a rapper and producer originally from Frankfurt, Germany, but raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Developing a love for rap early on, he initially went by the names Blaza and Therapist (the latter given by the Fayetteville rap group Bomb Sheltah) before using his real name.

He first gained attention with his 2007 debut mixtape The Come Up. After an initial unsuccessful attempt to pass a CD to Jay-Z, it was eventually Cole’s track “Lights Please” that caught Jay-Z's interest, leading to J. Cole becoming the first artist signed to Jay-Z's new label, Roc Nation, in 2009.

Since then, he has been prominent among the "new school" rap artists, with five albums achieving platinum status. His debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story, surpassed industry expectations by selling over 200,000 copies in its first week without having a top 40 single, while his second album, Born Sinner, was released during a celebrated sales battle with Kanye West in hip-hop. Prior to this, Cole released two projects forming his Truly Yours series, with the third appearing on the deluxe edition of Born Sinner.

Cole's third album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, was released without any radio singles, eventually becoming the first featureless rap album in 25 years to go platinum, achieving double platinum status by June 2016.

His fourth album, 4 Your Eyez Only, was released on December 9, 2016, which was the second anniversary of 2014 Forest Hills Drive. This album also went platinum without credited features.

KOD, Cole’s fifth studio album, came out on April 20, 2018, with 12 tracks and no features yet again. The project introduced the alter ego kiLL edward. He achieved a career milestone with three songs from KOD debuting simultaneously in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with “KOD” reaching #10, “Kevin’s Heart” at #8, and “ATM” at #6.

Following the KOD release, Cole featured on multiple tracks, notably Jay Rock’s “OSOM”, 21 Savage’s “a lot”, and 6LACK’s “Pretty Little Fears” in 2018.

On January 23, 2019, Cole released the T-Minus-produced hit “MIDDLE CHILD”, which reached number 4 on the Billboard charts, with its music video dropping on February 25, 2019.

On May 15, 2021, Cole finally released his anticipated sixth studio album The Off-Season, featuring 12 tracks, 10 of which were new.