As one of Roc Nation’s flagship artists, J. Cole has carved a lane for himself in the Hip Hop game without having his boss Jay-Z walk him through the process. During an interview with Fuse, the Fayetteville, North Carolina native explained that he had to establish his foundation and fan base out the gate and that he consciously strived to succeed outside of Hov’s shadow.
“It was, because I just realized that you can’t be bigger than Jay-Z. That shadow is a big shadow. It’s almost like Michael Jordan. We won’t even allow anyone to be better than Michael Jordan just because we feel the way we feel about him. So I knew that right away. I knew it would take me going out and building my own foundation. Even today, you’ll never see Jay-Z walk me to “106” or to this place or really introduce me anywhere. He just gave me a record deal and gave me a shot and an opportunity, which I appreciate and love and I ran with it, and I’m still running with it.”
Watch the interview below, where he also talks on his relationship with Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T. and more.
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Maybe Jay-Z just doenst like you Cole
Or maybe Jay Z wants J.Cole to be his own man, not dependent on Jay to help him with his career but to stand on his own feet and get out there rather than getting everything done for him like a spoilt pampered brat.
Or maybe Jay-Z looks at this nigga as a tax write off cause simply put, he sold his little fan base short by selling out and still didn’t gain shit really.
J Cole is an overrated piece of shit. Always has been. Always will be. Deal with it.
Flameboy will baseless hate on ANYTHING that is associated to Jay-Z. Fuck off, you bitch don’t need to be mad cause Nas never had success with putting anybody on.
@Mr Flamboyant your a true lame, to not recognize talent, and the drive to compete w/o a hand out…Cole n K.Dot crush ne body in tha game right now lyrically end of discussion…
I don’t know about him being the best rapper ever and I don’t care, but what I know is that he’s a fucking true artist and that’s all that counts.
YOU DONT MAKE SENSE…But i get what J Cole is saying, he has to make his own lane..which i think he has done already, but he is still boring, there is really nothing charismatic about him….thats why i think he gets a lot of Nas comparisons..Nas was a boring rapper after awhile..had some beautiful imagery songs and lyrics, but people liked him because of music and not his persona off stage which was dull..That is what makes artist..persona off and on the stage, in and out of the studio..which is why Tupac, Big and Jay..will always be in the mouths of future generations..
Word. Cole and Nas, two overrated fucks.
Diggy destroyed Gay Cole’s career.
Did diggy even sell 50,000 records yet??
Diggy sister is not the only one getting fucked.. lol
Really Bro?
Diggy is lyrically better than this faggot. Gay Cole should just retire already because his lil 15 minutes of fame is over now.
@swag, What are you diggy’s classmate, because they were the only ones that bought his album..
that nigga dont even write his own rhymes so shut up faggot
To all of those saying J. Cole is overrated, I would agree if I had only heard is album. Go listen to his mixtapes. Then you will truly understand that he is the hip hop future.
bahaha overrated? Are you all fucking kidding?? ‘The flow cold as the shoulders of gold diggin hoes when a broke nig approaches’ ‘Yeah I heard the hate, but the wait is fucking over, its like I’m fucking Oprah, well worth the weight’. Overrated my ass…dude has ridiculously dope bars
Agreed. Someone like Nas would never be able to drop bars like this.
To all you haters, just get on their level faggots.
Good Interview.
AY YO Cole when you gon drop the Kendrick lamar JOINT! ….real talk hahaha
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
JAY Z DONT LIKE J COLE WHEN HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A PIC OF THEM JUST CHILLIN CHOPPIN IT UP?
typical YESSIR. his definitioin of “choppin it up” is birdman and wayne tongue deep in each others throats and buttholes.
SHUT THE FUCK UP! cousin YESSIR I SWEAR COUSIN U GET MORE STUPID WITH EVERY COMMENT U POST ON THIS SITE Jay-Z does like J.Cole he just wants Cole to be a selfmade independant artist u know build his own foundation in this Hip Hop game with relying on Jay himself to guide Cole through out his career and so far J.Cole is in the beginning stages right now but he is doing a hell of a great job here in his early career though gettin GOLD albums and PLATINUM singles and he will get even better trust me as he evolves more in his career and then he will be able to headline big sell out arena concerts and get Multi PLATINUM albums so just face it YESSIR my DUMBASS COUSIN! JAY-Z likes and supports J.Cole if JAY didn’t he wouldn’t have went to Twitter congratulating Cole on his first week sales and having a number 1 album also JAY wouldn’t have said in a MTV interview that J.Cole already won the Grammy for best new artist in his book even though J.Cole didn’t actually win when it came time for the best new artist grammy and prior to the grammies Jay-Z give J.Cole a grammy gift a 2000 DOLLAR bottle of REMY MARTAIN LOUIS XIII and it came with a inspirational message to J.Cole, Jay-Z saying to Cole U ALREADY WON! LIVING YOUR DREAMS! JAY-Z, ROC NATION FAMILY now does all that sound like Jay-Z not liking J.Cole NO! HELL NO!!! cousin YESSIR seriously think before u post your comments besides i’m glad Jay-Z is puttin J.Cole in this current position he is in now cause it is allowing J.Cole to thrive and grow on his own into a true Hip Hop rap icon down the road see Jay-Z knows he would stunt Cole’s growth in this industry if he has to walk him through it like that catering to him that won’t help J.Cole out in the future so Jay-Z is doing the right thing by not stepping in to assist Cole in his career u know let him fend for himself SUVIVAL OF THE FITTEST YA’LL! IT’S to bad DRAKE, NICKI, AND TYGA have to rely on LIL WAYNE’S popularity and hype to be the driving forces in Hip Hop today LOL! that’s really sad though cause all the whole YMCMB team has going for them is being overrated and popular without it they ain’t SHIT! the whole damn YMCMB crew is TALENTLESS! NO TALENT AT ALL! i’m telling u cousin YESSIR when Lil Wayne’s career falls the whole team will cause all of the YOUNG MONEY crew have to cater to each other to be successful SHIT they bask in the glory of WANYE’S spot light feeding on his success cause they can’t do it on their own without him walking them through their careers step by step that’s why YMCMB SUCKS ASS CRACK! no real music or talent just some overrated pop music clowns they won’t last at the top for to much longer u mark my words ya’ll cause we hear at ROC NATION don’t have those problems we are all selfmade artists that have talent and can go out, make much better, more real Hip Hop music and win over the fans as well as gain huge success without the CEO catering to us that’s right YESSIR Jay-Z likes all his members of his ROC NATION EMPIRE it’s just that we are self sufficient artists and Jay-Z expects that from us and that’s what we give him unlike ya’ll YMCMB WACK ASSES who need LIL WAYNE to still spoon feed ya’ll LOL! u YOUNG MONEY artist are just sucking off of WANYE like leeches face it the YMCMB team are a bunch of puppets who need catering, hype, and publicity, and that’s why ROC NATION is always going to be better than YMCMB hands down BETTER GET OFF SUCKING THAT YMCMB DICK COUSIN YESSIR AND COME SUCK OFF THIS ROC NATION DICK YEA! cause we ride WAY HARDER over here and we the SHIT while YMCMB SSSSUCK!!! 28 LETTERS FOR U ROC NATION DREAMVILLE GOOD MUSIC……..WE THE REAL BUSINESS RUNNING THE GAME BITCHESS!!!!!
this dude is going to succeed unlike free, beans and the rest of the crew
j cole is nothing but a door for jay z to look cool and pull younger girls thats what snoop does with wiz they dont really care about them.