J. Cole requires little introduction as one of the most renowned and influential rappers of his generation. He was born in the curious setting of a U.S military base in Frankfurt, Germany where his father served in the army, but after only eight months, his father had become estranged from the family and his mother moved him and his older brother Zach back to America where they grew up in the North Carolina city, Fayetteville.
As he grew up, he was exposed to the realities faced by African Americans in the USA. Brought up by his mother who was of European descent, he had a strange mix in his life between the upbringing he received and the way people perceived him.
When asked about the impacts his ethnicity has had on him throughout his life, he answered: “I can identify with white people, because I know my mother, her side of the family, who I love. But at the end of the day, [I’ve] never felt white. I can identify [with white people] but never have I felt like I’m one of them. I identify more with what I look like because that’s how I got treated [but] not necessarily in a negative way.”
His experience growing up with the strain between familial and societal expectations didn’t seem to have too much of a negative effect on the confident young J. Cole. He would throw himself into all manner of hobbies with his friends with a special penchant for basketball. But at the age of 12, his life would change its course forever when his mother bought him an ASR-X musical sampler for Christmas in 2000.
With this, he began to set his sights on rapping and began to write his own material whilst learning to produce music. The youngster was clearly a very bright and ambitious character and was never far from his books when studying for his degree in Communication and Bussiness at St. John’s University in New York. But one book that he would later cite as his favourite of all time was ‘Eye of the Hurricane’ by Rubin Carter.
The rapper said of the book: “I never saw the movie with Denzel Washington, but the book [on which it is based] is incredible. It’s about a boxer who is a hometown hero in New Jersey because he went to juvie, then the army, made it big as a pro and then was wrongly accused of a triple murder. It’s kind of inspiring – and it makes me think, Man, what have I really done?”
The book is among the most important pieces of modern literature and highlights the inequalities experienced by ethnic minorities in the USA during the 20th century during the civil rights struggle. It appears that the book struck a chord with J.Cole as a young mixed-race performer in the USA and it shows he understands the importance of remembering the history of one’s country, be it good or bad.
J. Cole, of course, isn’t the first musician to highlight the importance of Rubin Carter’s story. Bob Dylan told the story in the poetic lyrics of his hit 1976 song ‘Hurricane’. Listen to the story through the words of the greatest songwriter of all time below.
