Last year, it seemed like everybody in the world knew about or had heard about Toronto rapper, Drake. I had been listening to his work since about late 2007/early 2008. I have remained a loyal fan even through his recent explosion onto the music scene. Yes, it is kind of annoying sometimes that millions of people have hopped onto the band wagon and don't fully appreciate what Drake has to offer music wise. All they pay attention to is the chorus and ignore the rest of the song. I don't believe Drake's 15 minutes of fame are even close to being over, but I do believe that the following artist will "blow up" in 2010.
The artist I believe will gain tons of exposure this year is none other than J.Cole [Jermaine Cole]. He was born in Germany and then moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina shortly after birth. He was raised there throughout the rest of his life and later moved to New York to attend St. John's University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He explains throughout some of his mixtapes [The Warm Up], that his intentions for going to that school weren't for educational purposes. He figured he would move to New York, attend school for a year, and would be signed as an artist. Things didn't work out like that for him though. He ended up graduating and worked on his music and production skills.
He released his debut mixtape entitled "The Come Up" in late 2007. It received a great buzz in the hip-hop world and eventually got into the hands of hip-hop legend, Jay-Z. After hearing one track ["Lights Please"], Jay-Z signed him as the first artist to his new record label, Roc Nation. J. Cole then released his 2nd mixtape entitled "The Warm Up" in June of 2009. This mixtape gained a much greater buzz and even led him to open up for Jay-Z on his "The Blue Print 3" College Tour. I was fortunate enough to catch this show at The Frank Erwin Center, in Austin, TX. His set was short, but when his song "Grown Simba" came on, the entire stadium was showing him love, despite the fact that probably 75% of the crowd did not know who he was. After this tour was done, J.Cole went on his own small venue tour in which I again, was able to catch him live at "Aces Lounge" in Austin, TX. He had just finished performing 3 straight nights in Texas in the cities of College Station, San Antonio, & Houston. Despite admitting that his voice was gone, he put on a great show.
J. Cole is now gaining a lot more attention and is being featured on a lot of other artists songs. Such artist include Wale, B.O.B., Reflection Eternal, and most significantly was featured on Jay-Z's "A Star Is Born" track off of "The Blue Print 3." Most recently he was chosen as one of XXL's Magazine "10 Freshmen for '10" in which a mixtape by DJ Whoo Kid was released that included a brand new J. Cole track. There is no doubt that J. Cole is a gifted artist. Every single one of his songs tells a story and his manipulation of words to get his voice across is simply amazing. His lyricism is through the roof. His delivery is incredible. His style is unique. This is the year that the rest of the world will find out who J. Cole is and will hopefully appreciate what he is bringing to hip-hop.
Here are a few links to some of J. Coles work he has put out for free:
***[Mixtape] "The Come Up": Click
HERE
***[Mixtape] "The Warm Up": Click
HERE
***[Track] "Lights Please": Click
HERE
***[Track] "Who's World Is This?": Click
HERE
***[Mixtape] DJ Whoo Kid presents "XXL 10 Freshmen for '10": Click
HERE***DISCLAIMER*** All music is for promotional use only. Ownership is sole property of the recording artist and those specified in the copyright.
Sources: www.jcolemusic.com / www.nahright.com
