Why J Cole considers Queens, New York his second home
J Cole grew up in North Carolina, but, when he got older, he upped sticks and headed for New York. He specifically ended up in Queens, which, over time, came to represent his home away from home.
Cole was, in actual fact, born in a country that no longer exists. Arriving in 1985, a time when the Cold War was ongoing and the Berlin Wall still stood, his birthplace was Frankfurt, which, at that time, was a part of West Germany. East and West Germany would only unify five years after Cole was born.
The reason Cole was born in West Germany was that his dad was in the army, and he was stationed on a military base there. That’s where Cole arrived into the world, but, not too long after that, his dad decided to leave his family. His mother later took Cole and his brother to Fayetteville in North Carolina, which is where they grew up.
Cole eventually developed aspirations to make it in the music business, so, once he had graduated from high school, he started to cast his eye further afield. He was accepted into St John’s University in Queens, and he duly moved to the New York borough as a young man.
Cole lived in the diverse Jamaica neighborhood of Queens for some time, specifically in a small apartment owned by a man named Mohammed. This landlord actually saw the potential in Cole’s burgeoning music career, and, as such, he sometimes allowed Cole to stay without paying rent. Cole, apparently, repaid Mohammed once he’d made it as a rapper.
This period that Cole spent in Queens meant a great deal to him, which is something that shone through on his song ‘New York Times.’ Included as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of his second album Born Sinner, ‘New York Times’ featured two Queens rappers in the form of 50 Cent and Bas. Cole had considered trying to get Nas on board, but that never worked out.
“This for all my n*ggas in the city,” Cole begins the track. “But this shit really for Queens though.”
The song was a tribute to Queens, which Cole had come to view as his second home. He explained as much during an interview on Power 106’s Backstage Breakfast series in 2013.
Characterising the track as “a Queens thing,” Cole noted, “It’s a real New York record and Queens is my second home. I’m from North Carolina but I’ve been in Queens for the past 10 years. That’s why I got 50.”
Cole spent the early years of his adulthood in Queens, and it’s where he lived as he made it as a rapper. The borough clearly means a great deal to him, with little acts of kindness that happened to him there, like the one his old landlord exhibited, only strengthening that fact.