J. Cole has been an anomaly in Rap because not only does he have a college degree, but he graduated Magna Cum Laude. In an interview with Tavis Smiley, he explains what he brings different to the game.
“It’s definitely an unlikely story,” he says, “just in the storyline of rappers that have come before what they try to portray a rapper to be or what rappers have portrayed themselves to be it was not cool to even, for a rapper to even go to college. Even Kanye was the closest one, but he had to be The College Dropout. Alright, you dropped out, so it’s like we like you. But to be a college graduate with amazing grades wasn’t the typical story.”
Cole explains that he always did well in school. Even in first grade, he was self-motivated for academic success.
“You know they have parent-teacher conferences,” the St. John’s alumnus says, “and she came to the teacher, my first grade teacher, and the teacher was like, ‘What are you doing at home?’ She was like, ‘I don’t know, what’s going on?’ She was like, ‘He comes up to me every day and asks me what his grade is.’ Every day in first grade, I would go to the teacher and be like, ‘Do you have my average?’ She’s like ‘Yo, it’s first grade.’”
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The North Carolina rapper says that he worked the system as a student and hopes that one day education can be about more than passing a test.
“If I could go back and do it again, I would’ve really learned the material,” he says. “I was great at I knew how to pass the test, night before, study, cram, go in knock the test out. I’ll do my work. I’ll do my papers. But in terms of retaining the information, I don’t think I did a good job of doing that and I don’t think our school systems are set up. If I guy like me can have straight As and graduate college Magna Cum Laude, but still now just turn 30 and feel like, man I didn’t really retain it, then I feel like that says a lot about our education system that you can like squeeze by and know how to get by.”
He says that he knew he wanted a college degree before he knew of his dream to be a successful rapper. He says this ambition in part was because he would be the first person in his family to get a degree. Not only did Cole balance school and music, but he was also on the basketball team in high school and worked at the skate rink.
“I’ve always been able to juggle these things because I wanted all of these things,” he says. “If you want something, you’re gonna find a way to make it happen.”
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Also in the interview, he breaks down some tracks from his album 2014 Forest Hills Drive including “Tale of 2 Citiez” and “Love Yourz.”
For additional J. Cole coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
