Jan
31How They Came Up: The J. Cole Story
Filed Under (How They Came Up) by FuNkwoRm on 31-01-2011
Tagged Under : How They Came Up
“How They Came Up”, will be a new series of posts here that will focus on the highlights of successful rappers’ careers. I will particularly focus on the portion of their lives before they became widely known. These lists will be put together from research and interviews of the artists. The aim here is to inspire and examine what it took for them to get where they are.
- Started rapping when he was 12.
- At 15 had a hard time finding hip hop beats so he started making them himself
- During high school persistently contacted labels and A&Rs by phone and email
- By age of 17, Cole was posting songs on various internet forums under the name “Therapist”.
- Left North Carolina for New York because he felt he had a better chance there
- Never had a doubt in his mind that he was going to be successful. Kept small jobs to pay the rent while he focused on his craft
- Stalked Jay Z once to hand him a beat CD but politely got dissed. Cole figured out that this wasn’t the way you get connected
- J. Cole continued building his buzz and in 2007, released his debut mixtape called “The Come Up”
- Mark Pitts, who was once Notorious B.I.G.’s manager and instrumental in signing Chris Brown, played Jay Z a song off Cole’s mixtape called “Lights Please”
- Jay Z thought the song was hot, and called Cole the next day
…let me be an inspiration to you…if you believe in yourself that you truly have the talent, you can do it. No matter how broke you are, no matter how bleak the situation might seem. Everything falls into place when you have faith in yourself. - J. Cole
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Great post bro.
Reply to ThaTrunk.com
Thanks TT!!
Reply to FuNkwoRm
Thanks alot for this,i love to know the grind process,i’m currently in it,thanks for this.
Reply to ReLL
You’re welcome Rell. Glad you’re inspired by the post! Keep in touch.
Reply to FuNkwoRm
Man this is great! I’m always browsing the internet looking for stories behind how different people made it big time. I’ll definitely be checking this series out on the regular. Great addition!
Reply to Tony
Thank you for posting this. I really enjoyed it, especially this line…”No matter how broke you are, no matter how bleak the situation might seem. Everything falls into place when you have faith in yourself.”
Reply to Selorm Denu
Thanks Tony and Selorm. Stay tuned for future posts and please continue give you feedback.
Reply to FuNkwoRm
Great way to educate everyone out there. Thank you, keep the stories coming!
Reply to Farhana
i would like to see a story on the business aspects of younger producers selling beats. i.e. the conversation kanye and jay had AFTER jay decided he wanted those beats… did kanye name a price, or did jay make an offer?
Reply to pele won
Big up and respect to funkworm for this post. Listen. J-Cole is so sincere it hurts. He is the true definition of a real mc. He is not an act or made up image. I listened to his mixtape. I really genuinely felt him and still do. He knows what it is to struggle. He knows what it is to feel pain. He knows what is to hurt. He what feels like to feel God aint listing when times get really hard. You are not going to find to many like him who make it in to this fony business. Appreciate him. He is more than a rapper or mc. He is voice for alot of us who do not make it. I also respect the fact that he voiced he did not sll crack and still made it. I respect this because so many of us fell victim to the game and the fame, the false illusions and temporary stability it brought, the murders, the robberys, the jail sentences, the defamation of character, the whoring of our women, mean prostitution etc. of our sisters and so on. I can speak on it because i was in it in the late eightys early ninetys and came from a family who been selling controlled substances since the 70′s. Nevertheless it was a goverment order of execution that destroyed many of our communities by the billions not millions and still is. So for him to say that he earned a great deal of respect for me because what that said to me is here is a man who loves his people and resisted the ever so strong pull to take or move a package for mere survival at a certain point in his life. Thats what real is. Thats whats gangster. Not contributing to the destruction of your own people. That shows strength and I personally salute him for that. He know something about life man. The good got some morals.
Reply to UNIVERSAL