J. Cole

Jermaine Lamarr Cole, born on January 28, 1985, is an American rapper and record producer. He was born on a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole first gained recognition as a rapper with his debut mixtape, The Come Up, in early 2007. He signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2009 and released two more mixtapes, The Warm Up (2009) and Friday Night Lights (2010), gaining critical acclaim and a wider following.

All of Cole’s studio albums have debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart. His debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011) and its follow-up Born Sinner (2013) both received critical acclaim, and included the Billboard Hot 100-top 40 singles “Work Out”, “Power Trip” (featuring Miguel), and “Crooked Smile” (featuring TLC). Despite his commercial success, Cole moved away from the pop-oriented sound of these albums in favour of more conscious subject matter for his subsequent projects. His following releases, 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014), 4 Your Eyez Only (2016), and KOD (2018), explored themes of nostalgia, racial inequality, and materialism, respectively. KOD featured a then-record six simultaneous top twenty hits on the Billboard Hot 100, tying Cole’s success with that of English rock band the Beatles. His sixth album, The Off-Season (2021), continued his successful run and included the single “My Life” (with 21 Savage and Morray), which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. His guest appearance on the 2023 single “All My Life” by Lil Durk was also a chart success. His first song to peak the chart was “First Person Shooter” by Drake that same year. “My Life” won Cole a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.

Cole is self-taught on piano and also acts as a producer alongside his recording career. He has largely produced his own projects and has credits on material for other artists including Kendrick Lamar, Janet Jackson, Young Thug, Wale, and Mac Miller, among others. Cole has been prolific in side ventures including his own record label Dreamville Records, as well as its namesake media company and non-profit. Dreamville Records has signed artists including JID, Ari Lennox, and EarthGang and has released four compilation albums. Their third project, Revenge of the Dreamers III (2019), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammy Awards. In January 2015, Cole began housing single mothers rent-free at his childhood home in Fayetteville.

Cole has won two Grammy Awards from seventeen nominations, a Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Album, three Soul Train Music Awards, and eight BET Hip Hop Awards. All of his albums, including Revenge of the Dreamers III, have received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).