Spotlight On: J Cole

Now that we've given his hottest album thus far some time to breathe, there is no better time than the present to talk about J Cole and his inspiring album 2014 Forest Hills Drive. He really let's us in to his thought processes around the album and his undeniable growth.

You have a great gift for storytelling... That gift comes from where?

Thank you, that means a lot. Ohh man...I'm not sure. I just know that, I started gravitating towards that. Like I started off just rapping about nothing. More like, battle raps, like, I'm better than you raps. You know what I mean, and uhm, once I really started to fall in love with the art more, you know pay more attention to my favourites Pac, Nas, it was the stories I gravitated to... those were some amazing story tellers. I'm just interested in telling stories, you know, just getting across the message and the theme. If I get chills, that's when I know. If I tell a story and I go ahh...that's when I know.

The stories that you tell, especially on this project are such personal stories and it seems to me that one needs to get to some level of comfort to be transparent enough to share those stories. So how does one navigate to that particular space?

Right (smiles while nodding). Yuo know the funny thing is, I was telling theses stories, you know I'm a bedroom artists, I come from the bedroom generation artists. So when you got the door closed and you're writing these songs, no-one's around to hear them. So I had these songs that would say super personal details about my life, really give you insight that some people might find embarrassing, like might not even wanna reveal that type of information, but for me it was like, nobody was really listening. You know I don't really talk about my problems with my friends, I'm a real introverted person so that was my way of getting it out. And I never thought about the other part, like yo...somebody's gonna hear this...so I got in the habit of telling those stories when no-one was listening. It just so happens now that we're at a point in my career where everyone's listening so...

Tell me about 2014 Forest Hills Drive...

That was the last home, I guess, that I ever had. That was the last place to live in North Carolina where I'm from. And to move there from where we were coming from, was like the ultimate come up, it was like... I went from 807 Louis str to 2014 Forest Hills Drive, before 807 Louis street, we were in a trailer park in Spring Lake. So from the trailer park in Spring Lake, to 807 Loius street which was a tiny house. Still amazing, compared to the trailer park? It was incredible...I'd spent the rest of my adolescent years in that house it would've been cool but, my mom got married. So you take her $30 000 income a year with my step fathers $30 000 a year income and we've just entered a whole new tax bracket, you know what I'm mean? So it's like, she comes home and tells us that we're moving,and it was a mile and a half away to 2014 Forest Hill Drive. I got my own room now, my brother got his own room, we got a front yard. There's tree's...there's a backyard. We had space for like, dogs. We had six pitbulls in the back and mind you, this neighbourhood was not built for pitbulls. This neighbourhood was like seventy year old, eighty year old ladies that had been there all their lives. Here we come this young family, playing Tupac loud, Stevie Wonder on weekends. We was in over our heads, on some guess who moved into the neighbourhood - that was us...It was the place where I started dreaming about doing what I'm doing right now. A lot of my memories from my teenage years are in that house.

How does a Magna Cum Laude college graduate end up being a rapper?

It's definitely an unlikely story, you know? In the storyline of rappers that have come or what they portray rappers to be or what rappers have portrayed themselves to be. It was not cool to go to college, even Kanye was the closest one but he had to be the college dropout. I was always a great student. If I were to go back and go do it again, I would've really learnt the material. I knew how to pass the tests so good, the night before, study, cram, go in knock the test out. I do my work for my papers. But interms of retaining the information, I don't think I did a good job at doing that. If a guy like me can have straight A's and graduate college Magna Cum Laude but still now at the age of 30 feel like, man I didn't really retain it. Then I feel it says a lot about our education system, like squeeze by and know how to get by. Before I Ever Dreamed Of Being a Rapper, I Dreamed Of Going To College. I wanted both on my resume and therefore I did what I needed to get both.

How does one keep the competition from becoming beef in the music, or is that just another way to sell records?

It's both. Beef, drama, controversy. People like that. Jealousy, pettiness. Greatness is fuelled by ego which is fuelled by insecurity.

If rejection drives us, if insecurity drives us, what drives you because I don't see where that plays a prat in your story.

I'm not sure. It may come from, family issues. You know, I didn't grow up with my father. And then my mom marries this new man that my brother and I don't like. Me having to entertain myself. Maybe? If I just had to throw it out there.

Tell me about:

Tale of Two Cities

I'm speaking from two different perspectives. The first verse is more of my perspective, who now that I've moved to this new house, this new neighbourhood, I'm more like a foriegner to this ld neighbourhood and I got dreams. I got an areial view of the city...I know that there's more in the world that I want. I got dreams of being a rapper and doing something greater. So I take a trip to the other side of town, just to take a peek, to tell a story, and my dreams are about getting out of this place. The second verse is of someone who's got the same ambition as me, but has never left this side and probably will never leave. His ambition is leading him to prison, my ambition is leading me to college.

Fire Squad

That's that competitive song...letting other rappers know that I'm not to be messed with.

Love Yours

Ohh man, that's such a great track. That just sums up the entire album is about. That when you're young, when I was young, I thought that success was all I needed. That's what was going to bring the happiness, buying my mom a house, you know the fame, the accolades, having people say 'oh you are the best in the game'. I thought those would be the things that bring happiness, and then when those things came, the happiness wasn't there and I realised why that was. There was such an attempt to ahieve these things and keep going that, you lose sight of the people and the blessings you have around you coz you're so focused on the next step in front of you, the next career, the next cheque- whatever it is and you forget that you have these things that seem small if you're looking that way but if you're looking this way, you realise that's the only hing that matters. That's your mother, that's your family, that's love. That's what that song's about.

It's one helluva an album. And he's one helluva dude. What are your favourite songs on it currently?