“You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain,” sings Jermaine Lamarr Cole, better known to the public as J. Cole, an American hip-hop recording artist and producer from Fayetteville, NC.

J.Cole made his debut in 2007 with the drop of his mixtape, The Come Up. Later he signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation imprint in 2009, followed by the release of two additional mixtapes. He continued his career by dropping “Cole World: The Sideline Story.” This album was extremely successful, placing number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and selling over 218,000 copies in the first week, according to Billboard Articles.

This greatly increased J. Cole’s fan base. His album Forest Hills Drive, released in 2014, sold over one million copies, making it go platinum, a major achievement for music artists. Although this is really impressive, the outstanding thing is that this J. Cole album did not feature any other artists. This is the first time in 25 years that an album has gone platinum without features, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

The success J. Cole has achieved may be accredited to his powerful lyrics. Albums such as Cole World: The Sideline Story include lyrics that touch on subjects such as abortion and life without a father. The ability for a large group of mainstream hip-hop fanatics to be able to connect with these themes and ideas makes J. Coles music a target for fans of hip-hop rap everywhere.

Other hip-hop artists such as Aubrey Drake Graham, also known as “Drizzy,” have recognized J. Cole’s success with compliments such as, “I just want to let you know… you’re looking at one of the smartest, greatest, most legendary artists of our generation, period.” Drake said that after L. Cole’s fourth night performing at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

J.Cole is not only recognized by his fans as one of the greatest rappers of our generation, but by other big time artists as well, such as Logic.

Currently J. Cole has not dropped any major pieces, but his performance in songs such as Black Friday, ft. Kendrick Lamar, keeps his presence alive in the world. Fans will be expecting much more from this North Carolina rapper.