In a world where your southern rappers are usually from Atlanta, Miami or Houston, its a rarity when you find a diamond in the rough like the MC from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Jermaine Cole aka J.Cole. But that hasn’t stopped him from making an impact in hip hop drawing the attention of the modern day Berry Gordy, Mr. Shawn Carter himself. Yes, J.Cole was the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s new Roc Nation label. Rapping since he was 12, he always dreamed of this stardom and its all coming to fruition. 

A St. John’s University graduate, it took him to graduate from college, working a dead end job, going thru the deception and tricks of industry people, but still performing college shows to get a meeting with Jay-Z. But he’s quick to mention that this did not happen overnight, with countless nights spent in his room making beats, perfecting his sound. Taking influences from rappers like Tupac Shakur, Nas, Canibus and Eminem, J.Cole is on his way to becoming apart of a new class of hip hop stars that are here to turn hip hop around for the good. His influences are definitely shown in his rhymes, with being from North Carolina he is southern rapper with and East Coast flow.

This mixtape I listened to, American Dreamin’, is a collaboration of some old tracks he produced while at St.Johns and some new material in anticipation of his next mixtape which will be released on June 15th, The Warm Up, which I will be posting here when it drops. But he also his another mixtape, The Come Up, which I’m itching to get my hands on. Top to Bottom, American Dreamin’ is quality music with songs like A Dollar and Dream, Simba, Split You Up, Serenade, College Boy – he talks about his experiences in college, getting females and trying to make it in the hip hop world. Its funny to hear a rapper saying that “College is a good look”, which is definitely true but not heard everyday. As of late, J.Cole has been touring with Wale. But anyway, get familiar and pay attention to Fayetteville, North Carolina’s own J. Cole. 

Check out his Blog!

Follow Him on Twitter!

He also released a video for Simba, which is about 10 months old, check it out: 

J. Cole – Simba (Directed by BBGUN) from bbgun on Vimeo.

This is WHAT’S IN MY HEADPHONES…