Via: Honey Mag

2009 has served to be an outstanding year in presenting a new crop of emcee’s. From Wale to CuDi to Drake and even more there just hasn’t been this large a group of distinguishable talent to arrive at once. Despite a handful of these emcees garnering success quickly through the blogs and  by releasing numerous mixtapes there is one that seems to be taking the old fashioned route. Yes, the guy’s name is J. Cole and below you can read some excerpts from his interview with Honey Magazine:

On his decision to dump his previous stage name, The Therapist:

Here’s the story. Back when I was like 13, we used to call three-way. It’d be like six niggas on the phone looking for rap names…

Not even, niggas was straight flipping through a dictionary! Like “Can I be the fucking chiropractor,” (laughs). Nothing was sticking and I looked towards my mentors for help and one of them, suggested Therapist. I actually loved the name, but as I got older, it started to be corny to me. It felt like a wrestler.

Exactly. The name J. Cole, is still a rap character in it’s own, but it’s closer to myself than the Therapist could ever be. I decided about 3, 4 years ago to make that switch.

On his relationship with Jay-Z:

I don’t even speak to him close to that much. I’m all about…you earn shit. Even though I signed that deal, you ain’t going to catch me in every picture throwing up…

Yeah and just eating off that brand. That time is going to come. They put in years worth of work to build that up and it would be phony for me to just come in because I got signed and now the next day I’m so Roc’d out. Nah. You have to earn the right to be Jay’s friend. He has to be impressed with you as a person. He’s not obligated to hang out with you now that you’re signed to his label. I mean a year from now who knows what shit will be like. So I speak to Jay when it’s necessary and when it’s appropriate.

On the differences and similarities between him and Drake:

We’re similar in the fact that our subject matter is authentic. I think the things that he’s saying very much represent him. We’re different in the fact that right now in my career I’m less concerned with material shit. No disrespect to him, but I feel like my subject matter is a little bit more broad and deeper. But, another difference is, he knows how to make a hit record. I ain’t got no hit records yet. I haven’t proven that. He’s proven that on several different occasions.

Well he said it himself, he has yet to make a hit record and that’s probably why the average listener has yet to find out who he is. The guy is extremely talented and that may also be another problem. Some of the more popular emcee’s lyrical content is a bit more play than serious and that just reflects the personalities of most in this generation. Of course there are those who still appreciate “true hip-hop” but the radio listeners want the happy tunes. Don’t worry though J. Cole is slowly building momentum and when he picks up it will be mighty hard to stop him.

LINK TO HIS MIXTAPE ‘THE WARM UP’