Jermaine Lamarr Cole, born January 28, 1985, records as J. Cole. Born on a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany, to an Army veteran father and a postal worker mother, he was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, played violin in his school orchestra and started rapping at twelve. He moved to New York for college, and Jay-Z signed him to Roc Nation in 2009 after the mixtapes The Come Up and The Warm Up. Every one of his studio albums has debuted at number one, from Cole World: The Sideline Story and Born Sinner through 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 4 Your Eyez Only, KOD and The Off-Season. He runs the Dreamville label and festival, and his verse-for-hire run in the early 2020s made him one of the most requested guests in rap.