Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985) is an American hip-hop recording artist and record producer from Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 2009 he signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation for a $1 million album deal; his 2010 Roc Nation debut Cole World: The Sideline Story debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.
Cole initially gained recognition as a rapper following his debut mixtape, The Come Up in 2006, with singles “Lights Please” and “Who Dat.” He released his second mixtape, A Different World in 2007, with singles “Rise and Shine,” “Truly Yours,” and “Breakdown.” Both projects were eventually remastered and rereleased as Greatest Hits in 2009 to expand Cole’s audience beyond.
His words will make you believe in your dreams and dare to go after them with the conviction that you can do it!
Here are the 113 Best J. Cole Quotes that are a great way to be inspired
“Life can bring much pain. There are many ways to deal with this pain. Choose wisely.”
“Keep grindin’ boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.
“School is a good place – it ain’t for everybody, but I think it’s for most people.”
“Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best. It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried.”
“It’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.”
“You are perfect exactly as you are. With all your flaws and problems, there’s no need to change anything. All you need to change is the thought that you aren’t good enough.”
“As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have a ton of friends & more important to have real ones.”
“Nothing lasts forever, but at least we’ve got these memories.”
“I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.”
“If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.”
“Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.”
“Sometimes our dreams come true, sometimes our fears do too.”
“I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.”
“Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best. It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried.”
“Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.”
“No such thing as a life that’s better than yours, no such thing – no such thing…”
“I’m here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.”
“Either you play the game or you let the game play you.”
“My life is too crazy, no actor could play me.”
“I walk along this long harbor of life and sit on the piers, reflect on my pain and sh*t on my fears.”
“No such thing as life that’s better than yours.”
You are perfect exactly as you are. With all your flaws and problems, there’s no need to change anything. All you need to change is the thought that you aren’t good enough.
“When I was in college my girl got me a job at the doctor’s office she was working at. I was a file clerk. No disrespect but I don’t think a man can do that job. It takes so much meticulous and precise file-keeping.”
“If you place your importance on appreciation and love, that’s enough.”
“I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.”
“A little jealousy in a relationship is healthy. It’s always nice to know someone is afraid to lose you.”
“In this life ain’t no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance.”
“But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you’re aware of it, it’s happening.”
“My fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.”
“Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.”
“One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose. Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.”
“In this life ain’t no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance.”
“Anything I do, I want to do it well.”
“One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose, always aim high and rarely obey the rules.”
“Life is a movie, pick your own role, climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.”
“Don’t let them taint your soul.”
“Every loser gotta win and every winner gotta lose someday.”
“Nothing lasts forever, but at least we’ve got these memories.”
“I’ve got two Rolexes that I’m very proud of – a gold Presidential that was a gift and a white gold one I gifted myself. I’m trying to step my game up and get a few more of those.”
“They say time is money but really it’s not. If we ever go broke, then time is all we got. And we can’t make that back, no you can’t make that back.”
“People congratulate me. I just tell them God is good.”
“Get to know somebody and you really learn a lot about ‘em. Won’t be long before you start to doubt ‘em. Tell yourself you better off without ‘em. Then in time you will find can’t walk without ‘em.”
“My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.”
“I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.”
“Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.”
“Producing all my own songs and refusing to go to the hot producer. That’s the biggest risk I’ve taken so far.”
“If I was to go to sleep before midnight, I would feel weird about myself, like I wasted a day. My most productive hours are between midnight and five.”
“I try to put all those positive things into a regular human character, which is myself.”
“Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best. It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried.”
“To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is.”
“I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it. I’m never satisfied.”
“I’mma be here for a while. None of these clowns can hurt me.”
“I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.”
“There’s a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone.”
“Am I about dollars or about change? Am I about knowledge or brains? Freedom or big chains? They don’t feel my pain.”
“I feel like I am officially in the game, but I also feel like I’m not where I want to be. I’m far from it. I got a lot more things to do. I got a lot more respect to get…”
“The same ones you love will bring you pain.”
“There was the time I bought three cars in the span of three or four weeks. It was crazy; it wasn’t greedy. It was mine, my girl’s, my mom’s. I got Benzes for my ladies. But I felt crazy. You have to understand I come from a world where we’re very modest. But that’s not greedy. That’s nice, right?”
“I seen a baby cry seconds later he laughs… the beauty of life, the pain never lasts.”
“Hard to move on when you always regret one.”
“Anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.”
“If you ain’t aim too high, then you aim too low!”
“We got dreams and we got the right to chase ’em.”
“I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.”
“For a few minutes you made me feel as if I actually meant something to someone.”
“I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I don’t know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me.”
“My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.”
“I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.”
“The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.”
“They say time is money but really, it’s not. If we ever go broke, time is all we got.”
“I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.”
“As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.”
“No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.”
“It’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.”
“When you’re a rapper, just a rapper, you have to kind of settle for whatever comes your way – if a beat is hot, you wanna rap on it, period.”
“People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‘How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?’ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.”
“As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have a ton of friends & more important to have real ones.”
“For a few minutes you made me feel as if I actually meant something to someone.”
“If they don’t know your dreams, they can’t shoot them down.”
“One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose. Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.”
“It’s no coincidence that all the greatest rappers – whoever you put in your top five – I guarantee you they are great storytellers.”
“College had a great deal to do with my development as a person. I don’t know if I’d be the artist I was if it wasn’t for goin’ to school like that. School is a good place – it ain’t for everybody, but I think it’s for most people.”
“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.”
“Don’t let bridges you cross be bridges you burn.”
“I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‘This is what I asked for.”
“You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain.”
“I have a little bit of that gamer spirit in me. I just don’t have the time to be a gamer. But in another life, I would be one.”
“I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.”
“You have no control over what somebody else feels about you, but you have 100 percent control over how you feel about yourself and how you feel about the people around you and how you handle life.”
“They say: ‘What you fighting for? The game is on life support/And Gary Coleman just passed/Life is short.”
“I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it.”
“If you ain’t aim too high, then you aim too low.”
“I do put a lot of God in my music, but not because I’m super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music, too. I acknowledge both.”
“I met Will Smith twice. I didn’t talk to him for too long but I was trying to let him know that my age group grew up watching him – he was the coolest guy on television and the coolest guy in movies.”
“Remember when I did a show with Waka Flocka Flame/Felt naked ’cause the boy rocked about a thousand chains/Guess we rock a lot of ice cause we got a lot of pain.”
“The music becomes more pure and soulful when it’s true, and it has to be true these days with the way the internet works, and the way the game works, everyone wants authentic raps.”
“I grew up with nothing, it hurt me to see my mother poor/The only pops a n*gga ever seen around was Huxtable.”
“I don’t like to think of it as being fired. Instead, I prefer to think of it as being on indefinite leave with a sabbatical flair.”
“I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.”
“My parents were divorced by the time I was even conscious – like, I don’t remember them ever being together.”
“You are perfect exactly as you are. With all your flaws and problems, there’s no need to change anything. All you need to change is the thought that you aren’t good enough.”
“Tupac was just so passionate about what he believes in and not afraid to say anything.”
“I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.
Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best. It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried.”
“I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.
You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain.”
“My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.”
“I’m really going out of my way to do it the right way. I’m taking very few cheats – very few cheat codes that I’m using.
“The music becomes more pure and soulful when it’s true, and it has to be true…”
