List of J. Cole Quotes

A Lot Of My Music Is Just Self-observation. Like Telling You, "oh Man. What Did I Just Do? How Much Did I Just Pay For This Chain? Why Did I Do That? Wait A Minute." Let Me Talk About That. Or Like, The Temptation. Let Me Talk About That. Let Me Observe Myself.

I Never Really Told Anybody That I'm A Rapper. I Wasn't Walking Around Being Like, "yo, Check Out My Mixtape!" It Was More Of A Secret Grind.

I Didn't Even Have To Be A Big Fan Of Someone To Enjoy Hearing Them Speak. I Remember When Nikki Giovanni Came - I Wasn't Really Familiar With Her. But She Said Some Things I'll Never Forget. Like, Okay, For Example, She Was Talking About The Amount Of Beef That's In The World. There Are So Many Mcdonald's, Burger Kings, Wendy's.

I Was A Huge Mike Tyson Fan Growing Up; His Fights Were Always On In My House.

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?

I Worked In Ad Sales. I Would Call Up Local Businesses And Try To Get Them To Buy Ads In The Paper. The Whole Time, I Felt Like I Was Just Scamming People.

It's The Way I Enjoy Making Art - I Like Sitting Down And Making Five Beats; I Enjoy That Process. I Can Go Two Weeks Without Making A Song And Just Making Beats And I'll Be Ok.

You Can't Take Yourself Too Seriously. Like, Yeah, I'm Doin' All That, But Still I Don't Feel Like I've Done Anything, Really. I Feel Blessed 'cause I'm Doin' All These Things, But I'm Not Satisfied. I Still Have That Feeling Like, "who Am I? Who Am I To Have An Ego? Who Am I To Change Up And Act Like Some Hollywood Character?" Technically, In The Grand Scheme Of Things, I Haven't Done Anything.

When Composing Music, I Just Start Spilling Things Out And Then Wait Until They Take Form, You Know What I Mean, Until I See Like A Common Thread Or Something.

I Don't Wanna Forget The Fact That I Wanna Be One Of The Best Rappers. I Feel Like Some Of The Best Rappers Ever - 2pac, Namely, One Of Them - Could Take Sub-par Beats Or Average Beats And Turn Them Into Incredible Songs.

Usually I Start With A Beat, I Start Making A Beat, And My Producer Side Is Making The Beat. And On A Good Day, My Rapper Side Will Jump In And Start The Writing Process - Maybe Come Up With A Hook Or Start A Verse. Sometimes It Just Happens Like That. A Song Like 'lights Please' Happens Like That.

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.