As a first time Grammy Awards nominee one would expect rapper J. Cole to be brimming with excitement, but during an interview with the Associated Press J. Cole explained that while he is grateful to be nominated he’s more concerned with continuing on to the next move.

The rapper will join the likes of Bon Iver, The Band Perry, Nicki Minaj, and Skrillex as a nominee for Best New Artist at the Grammy’s.

“I feel blessed of course, first and foremost, but I’m already back to work. I’m already on to the next one. I’m grateful for everything that happened, but I’m not satisfied,” Cole explained. “There’s still accomplishments that keep happening from the work that I put in last year and the last two, three years. The single goes platinum, the album goes gold, Grammy nomination but those are just reminders of the work that I did. But that’s in the past. I’m already on to what’s the next move. That’s my mind state.”

Cole went on to explain that he was quite intent on releasing his album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, before the Grammy deadline.

“Around the time of ‘Work Out’ or whatever when I was like ‘Yo, this is the single. Come on. Let’s go, we gotta move,’” said Cole. “And everybody at the label knew we had to move just like I knew but I was like ‘This is the one. Let’s go.’ It was because I was telling my management and telling the label ‘I have to beat the Grammy deadline. I gotta do it.’ Like if I don’t put my album out before the Grammy deadline which I knew, if you look at the date my album came out like two days before the Grammy deadline, and that’s cause I knew I got a shot.”

Despite the rush to release his album before the Grammy deadline, J.Cole revealed that come nomination time he wasn’t very confident about the possibility of his project receiving any nominations.

“I thought my album was that good. But then the crazy thing is even though I thought that when it was time for the Grammy’s announcement for the nominations to come out I really, truly had already given up,” the rapper revealed. “I was like ‘Ah nah.’ It didn’t feel right. I didn’t think they saw, I didn’t think anybody really noticed or whatever but they did.”  

Other Hip Hop artists to be nominated for a Grammy Award this year include Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, and Lupe Fiasco.

 

 

RELATED: Jay-Z Speaks On J. Cole’s Grammy Nomination