A Dollar and a Dream

                Let’s face it, today people just don’t buy CDs anymore. Ask a 5 year old what a cassette tape is and I bet you will just be answered back with a blank stare. Quite frankly, I don’t even remember the last time I wandered into a “FYE” (For Your Entertainment, a popular chain store that sells CDs, movies, etc) and bought a physical copy of a CD. More over in this age of IPod and MP3 players, I'm sure the walkmans or CD players in the back of my closets are collecting mounds of dust. So for a hip hop artist these days to go platinum is big, what’s even bigger is getting there completely solo. There hasn’t been a hip hop album that went platinum without any songs that featured other artists since 1989!

                If you haven’t guessed it I am talking about Mr. Jermaine Lamarr Cole a.k.a. J Cole. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany on January 28, 1985 to an African American soldier and a German woman. The family moved when he was still young and he was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He began rapping at the age of 12 and aren’t we all glad for it! He released his third album 2014 Forest Hill Drive on December 9, 2014 and since then it has been climbing the charts. One good thing about his songs is that they always contain insightful messages which is a definite improvement to most songs these days that contain no substance. I don’t want to put any one song on blast but one thing human’s love is simple, repetitive music. All music is a form of art and has a place/time. So next time you’re in your car put some J Cole on, relax, chill, and feel what he’s saying. Hey, you might learn something or get inspired by his artistry!


                FYI, he’s on tour so if he’s coming to a city near you, you might want to check it out! I waited 3 hours in the rain this year during SXSW to see him and I'd do it again. I waited cramped in the sea of fans for 3 more additional hours with some chick behind me coughing and I would do it again. I was sick for 3 weeks after SXSW from that same super contagious girl, and I WOULD DO IT AGAIN in a heartbeat, no questions asked.