J. Cole
I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.
I've got two Rolexes that I'm very proud of - a gold Presidential that was a gift and a white gold one I gifted myself. I'm trying to step my game up and get a few more of those.
No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.
I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.
I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening.
I think if I did something in the pop world right now, it would be for Rihanna. I'd love to do something production wise for her.
When you're headlining, people are paying to come see you specifically. It's a different kind of pressure, because you've got to deliver. You've got to give these people what they paid for. It's a different mind state, a different type of mentality, but it's honestly a pretty good problem to have, you know?
Life is a movie, pick your own role, Climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.Collection: Roles
I seen a baby cry seconds later he laughs... the beauty of life, the pain never lasts.Collection: Baby
To appreciate the sun you gotta know what rain is.Collection: Rain
You are perfect exactly as you are. With all your flaws and problems, there's no need to change anything. All you need to change is the thought that you aren't good enough.Collection: Perfect
Anything's possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.Collection: Dream
Keep grindin' boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it's dark out, the sun is shining somewhereCollection: Dark
No need to fix what God already put his paint brush onCollection: Needs
One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose, Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.Collection: Play
Believe in God like the sun up in the sky, see science can tell us how but it can't tell us why. I seen a baby cry then seconds later she laughed, the beauty of life the pain never lasts.Collection: Baby
Either you play the game or let the game play you and be that broke sucka talkin bout I stayed trueCollection: Games
I'll be dammed if I sit around another year, Dreamin' dreams hopin' somehow that they just appear.Collection: Dream
The same ones you love will bring you pain.Collection: Pain
Sold my soul to Satan. I've been dancing with the devil. So when you get to hell you can say you know me. I'm easily attracted by the dark side. Devil keep following. For that fortune, some sold their soul to Satan. Was on track for the first two years, then i let the Devil steer. Now i got to mask my tears, but allow me to re-introduce myself, my name is Cole: Born sinner, opposite of a winner. But the Devil run the T.V. so the demons in him, I'm in trouble did a deal with the Devil but now I'm pleading with him like give me my soul. I ain't ever letting go but the devil don't play fair.Collection: Letting Go
Don't let bridges you cross be bridges you burn.Collection: Bridges
If you ain't aim too high, then you aim too low!Collection: Lows
If I lost your respect...I'm just hope you don't look at me as something you regret.Collection: Regret
Hard to move on when you always regret one.Collection: Regret
We got dreams and we got the right to chase 'em, Look at the nation, that's a crooked smile braces couldn't even straighten.Collection: Dream
Don't worry, Even Jesus never saw his real fatherCollection: Jesus
History repeats itself and that's just how it goes.Collection: History Repeats Itself
I feel like relationships are a beautiful thing, period. Relationships can be really beautiful, they can be really hard, they can be really rewarding, or they can be bad relationships where it's really detrimental and hurtful, but that's life, period.Collection: Beautiful
I'ma be here for a while. None of these clowns can hurt me.Collection: Hurt
So ahead of my time even when i rhyme about the future I be reminiscingCollection: Reminiscing
I yearn for that livin' large, but mama I ain't done yet/Sit back and watch your son rise, kick back and know your son setCollection: Son
I'm already hot, you could say I'm pre-heated. If money talks, mine's telling your's to 'be seatedCollection: Hot
I'm the type of person where, A., I look at things as challenges, I like challenges and, B., I truly believe that you determine your own destiny.Collection: Believe
You hate it before you played it. I already forgave ya.Collection: Hate
Marriage is just a relationship to me. In my experience, when you've been in a relationship for as long as I've been in one, there's no real difference. It's just a piece of paper that validates what was already real.Collection: Real
I wish I studied more religions, I wish I read the Bible, the Quran. I think as I get older, I will start to really dive into religions, just because I feel like there's truths in all of those books. Clearly. I'm saying there's truths in all of them.Collection: Book
In marriage you got to go through the same struggles as a relationship, that's if the relationship is real, because there's a lot of non-real relationships going on in the world right now. And I think that's just because of the day and age we're in, a lot of these relationships are taking place over text messages, it's not real substance. But when you got a real one, it's already like a marriage.Collection: Real
Sold my soul to Satan. I've been dancing with the devil. So when you get to hell you can say you know me. I'm easily attracted by the dark side. Devil keep following.Collection: Dark
I truly believe that I make my path and I set my course, and where I land, at the end of the day, or the end of my career, [is] because of me. Of course, you get help along the way, and cosigns and management and opportunities and things like that but overall, the ball is in your court basically.Collection: Believe
While silly ni**as argue over who gon' snatch the crown / Look around my ni**a, white people have snatched the sound / This year I'll probably go to the awards dappered down / Watch Iggy win a Grammy as I try to crack a smile.Collection: Silly
School is a good place - it ain't for everybody, but I think it's for most people.Collection: School
If I'm a character, it's a biographical movie. My character is as close to me as possible. As close to being myself as possible. So my character, J. Cole, is very close to Jermaine Cole.Collection: Character
When I first started rapping, when I switched my style to more like a punch line style - this is when I'm like 13 years old - and I switched it to this real wordy - I was trying to rap like Canibus and like Eminem. It was real lyrical, real wordy and punch lines and, when I would come up with these punch lines and spit 'em in these cyphers, the minute the cyphers would be like, "Ohhh" and everybody would break away, it was a new feeling for me. It was like, "Oh, yo, you see what I just did?" I was addicted to that feeling, and I still love that feeling.Collection: Real
There's always people out there that's like, doubting me, you know what I mean? Even though I do embrace the people that embrace me and I'm grateful for them. But I always feel like, man, there's still people out there that's not giving it up. And I feel like I'm doing everything the right way, you know what I mean? I'm really going out of my way to do it the right way. I'm taking very few cheats - very few cheat codes that I'm using.Collection: Grateful
Get on yo job little man this ain't SaturdayCollection: Jobs