hip-hop · rap

J. Cole

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Fayetteville rapper and producer who builds his own beats and sells millions without guest features, writing long autobiographical verses about class and doubt.

J. Cole grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and studied at St. John's University in New York before Jay-Z signed him to Roc Nation. He produces much of his own work, favouring warm, sample-based drums and piano figures, and raps in long stretches without hooks.

His records return to the same subjects: money and what it does to family, the distance between where he grew up and where he ended up, and his own vanity. He runs the Dreamville label, whose compilation sessions gathered dozens of rappers and producers in a studio over a matter of days.

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