The Therapist: how J Cole got his first rap name
As rap names go, J Cole is among the more modest around. A simple abbreviation of his actual name, Jermaine Lamarr Cole, The Fall-Off creator never needed an outlandish stage name to stand out from the crowd. But, in actual fact, he did actually start rapping under another name entirely.
During a 2021 appearance on Nardwuar The Human Serviette’s podcast, the rapper was asked about his early stage name before J Cole. The host, Nardwuar, had heard that Bomm Sheltuh had bestowed the name upon him, which was correct, but he did get something else wrong.
Nardwuar referred to Bomm Sheltuh as a “he,” but, as Cole explained, Bomm Sheltuh are actually two people. They’re a rap duo formed in the early ’90s, and Cole, by his own admission, owed a lot to them.
“It was a duo,” Cole explained. “Two rappers — one was a rapper and producer, from Fayetteville, North Carolina. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them because they were from my city, and they music, to me, that sounded just as good as OutKast or Redman [&] Method Man.”
Encountering Bomm Sheltuh was a big deal for a young Cole, who had always looked to other places for inspiration in the rap game. The fact that this duo was from his neck of the woods was inspiring, so he began to idolise them a bit.
“They had the coolest rap names I ever heard,” said Cole. “Nervous Reck was one of them, and the other one was Filthe Ritch — they spelled ’em all cool. I was just like, ‘Damn, I need a rap name like that.’ So they offered to help me find a rap name.”
They actually came through for Cole, eventually phoning him up one day with their suggestion. “I was all excited,” Cole recalled. “I thought my shit was gonna be just as fire as theirs. I was like, ‘What is it?’ They were like, ‘It’s Therapist.’”
J Cole was, indeed, known as The Therapist during the very early stages of his rap career, but, actually, he wasn’t so thrilled when he learned that this was Bomm Sheltuh’s suggestion. “My heart said nooo,” he admitted, “but my admiration and love for them and the feeling that these guys gave me a name was like, ‘Aw, that’s dope.’”
Cole kept the name “for about four or five years,” but, when he got to college, he thought better of it. Realising that the nickname felt “like a wrestler or something,” he cast it aside and started going by J Cole. It was probably a good decision.