J. Cole Biography

The American producer and musician known as J. Cole was born Jermaine Lamarr Cole in 1985 in Frankfurt, West Germany, where his family was stationed as a soldier for the United States Army. Cole’s mother is German, but after splitting with Cole’s father, she moved the family to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Jermaine spent his formative years. Cole began rapping when he was a teenager, and by the time he had graduated high school, he had decided to move to New York to pursue a career as a musician.

While in New York, J. Cole attended St. John’s University to study communication and business, but during his entire college period he continued to write and record his own music. In 2007, J. Cole released the debut mixtape, The Come Up, which garnered him some attention and set the stage for the mixtape The Warm Up (2009) and his debut studio album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, in 2011.

Cole World rose to the top of the mainstream charts upon its release, reaching multi-platinum status and setting the stage for Born Sinner (2013) and 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014), which earned him his first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album. Notable chart-topping singles from J. Cole include: “Work Out,” “Can’t Get Enough,” “Nobody’s Perfect,” “Power Trip,” “Crooked Smile,” “She Knows,” “Apparently,” “Wet Dreamz,” and “No Role Modelz.” In addition to his Grammy Award for 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole has been recognized with five BET Hip Hop Awards (for categories such as Producer of the Year and Album of the Year) from a total of twenty-two nominations.

In addition to his accomplishments in music, J. Cole also runs his own foundation, The Dreamville Foundation, which seeks to help underprivileged and underserved youth in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As part of the foundation, Cole rents out his childhood home to single mothers and their children, cost-free, to help families get back on their feet.

J. Cole continues to perform and record. His most recent albums, 4 Your Eyez Only and Major Key, were both released in 2016.