Life Before Fame, Looking Into J.Cole's Past And His Rise To Fame

 Before J. Cole was nominated for five Grammy Awards in just four years, before he began working with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as DJ Khaled, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and drake, before he became the first rapper in 25 years to have an album go platinum without having any features, and before he released his diss track "false prophets," in which he calls out Kanye West, He was just a young boy growing up in North Carolina. He was a violinist and a gifted student at school.

By the age of 12, Jay's whole attention was directed toward honing his rhymes, enhancing his musical skills, and improving his vocabulary, his aspirations to create and perform got more intense. 

Jay exclusively applied to universities in New York City when it came time to attend college so he could pursue a career in the music industry while simultaneously earning his degree. By 2010, J. Cole had landed a deal with Jay-label, Z's Roc Nation, and was named one of the year's top new artists.

J. Cole went from serving as the opening act on Drake and Brianna's tour to becoming one of the biggest rappers in the industry in just four short years. He released three platinum albums, including the number one hit "2014 forest hill drive," which spawned a documentary series, a hbo special live album, and a number of names that were absolutely hilarious.

On January 28, 1985, at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany, Germain Lamar Cole was born. They are both biracial: jermaine and his brother Zach. Their biological father, an African-American, and their mother, a white woman, both served in the u.s. military. They intended to move the family to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, commonly known as Vietnam, when the boys were still pretty small. Jay's mother sent him and his brother over because of the country's high crime rate and seedy neighborhoods, but Jay's father used this chance to avoid the family and did not follow them to the United States.

Jay records and explores this feeling of abandonment and the absence of a father figure in his music.

In order to provide for the family, his mother Kate accepted a position as a bartender at the Sundowner Lounge, earning $2 per hour. She eventually applied to work for the US Postal Service after some encouragement, and was hired. With her new wage of $17 per hour and the combined income of the boy's new stepfather, the family was able to move into their first real home, which was located at 2014 Forest Hill Drive.

When he was 11 years old, J. Cole had his own room to himself and was free to pursue his growing love of music and rap.

Before he ultimately established his own voice, the 12-year-old wannabe rapper went through a number of distinct style transitions throughout time. When he first began, he imitated the no limit movement and his favorite rapper, Master P.

After that, he started to concentrate on honing his battle rap skills, and by the age of 15, he had developed his raps into a means of telling stories. Additionally, he developed a deep love for the local rap group Bomb Shelter. The group reacted to his numerous emails by inviting him to a performance.

At this time, Bomb Shelter would add a freestyle in their performances, challenging concertgoers to a fight. J. Cole overcame his stage fright and performed in front of an audience when he was just 15 years old, outperforming other rappers who were already in their 20s.

From that point forward, Bomb Shelter studio made J. Cole feel at home, and he asked his mother to drop him off there each day so he could take note of the tools he needed to create his own beats for his rhymes.

He asked his mother for a beat machine every day, and she finally gave in and bought him one.

Even if the beat machine is a $1,000 piece of equipment, The family was not doing well financially or emotionally. Jay recalls how his mother had to look for extra coin in the morning to give him $1.50 for lunch.

Jay's stepfather was violent, and Zach was teased at home and at school for having light skin. Jay would rap on all of these topics in songs like "breakdown" and "three wishes."

J. Cole maintained his optimistic attitude and motivation while living in a tripled family, did well in school, worked part-time at the skating rink, and developed his beat-making abilities with Bomb shelter, under the alias Blaza and therapists.

Jay primarily applied to universities in New York City because of the city's connections to the rap music industry, and in 2003, after graduating from Terry Sanford High School with a 4.2 grade point average, he received a scholarship and admission to St. John's University.

Things at home began to deteriorate soon after he left for school. While Jay's stepfather was on an extended deployment in Thailand, he stopped making mortgage payments without informing the family.

Jay's mother discovered that she was losing both her home and her husband when the bank foreclosed on the property. Kate was made to move into an apartment and soon discovered that she was addicted to crack cocaine and in an unhealthy new relationship.

Jay continued to put in a lot of effort during this time in New York, working on his music while also studying computer science, business, and communications. He also had a lot on his mind because his mother was in trouble.

Jay concentrated on establishing his reputation and his beats after graduating in 2007, but it was a difficult beginning. He claimed that he waited outside in the rain for about three hours in the hopes that Jay Z would show up. However, when he did, the meeting wasn't what he had anticipated because Jay Z just dissed him and sent him away.

But because luck has a weird way of working, a year later he would run into Jay-Z again and this time, Jay-Z was truly interested in hearing his music.

To cut a lengthy story short, someone gave it to someone who was gave it to Jay Z. This was afterJ. Cole's mixtape "The Warm-Up" was successful. Jay was chosen as one of XXL's outstanding freshmen of 2010, and he was signed to ROC nation where he worked on The Blueprint 3 for Jay-Z.

2011 saw the release of his first full studio album, "Cole World," which went platinum in the US and peaked at number one on the Billboard 200.

Jay was eventually able to assist his mother in beating her addiction thanks to the enormous success of that debut album. She was able to leave her post office work after he also purchased her a house. She even made the decision to go to the Grammys as his date.

Jay again had a smash with his follow-up album, "Born Sinner," which was released on October 18, 2013, debuting at the top of the Billboard Top 200 and earning platinum status in the US.

Jay even changed the date of release so that "Born Sinner" would compete with Kanye West's "Jesus." Now, "Born Sinner" was beaten by Kanye's album.

 Since then, Jay has released a third album, "2014 forest hill drive," which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 350 000 copies in its first week with no prior advertising or singles.

Jay earned album of the year at the BET hip hop awards, best rap album at the billboard music awards, and garnered another grammy nomination.

J. Cole is the first rapper to go platinum without any features on an album with "2014 Forest Hill Drive" in 25 years. Jay hasn't slowed down after then; he even got his own hbo live performance special.

He performed with Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Chance the Rapper at the Cleveland Hillary clinton rally in 2016 and made an appearance on DJ Khaled's new album.

On December 1st, 2016, Jay delivered not one but two diss singles, "false prophets" and "everyone gonna die," as well as the artwork and track list for his upcoming album, "For your eyes only". Jay attacks weezy, lil yachty, lil Uzivert, and his old pal Wally on the recordings; one day later, wally reacted with his own diss track, "Groundhog Day."

This could all be in good fun because he and Jay were spotted together at a basketball game and shared pictures to twitter.