Roc Nation’s first official signee and the pride of Fayetteville, North Carolina, J. Cole, made a trip to ATL this weekend to give fans a taste of the hits making his name synonymous with hope for Hip-Hop.
While preparing to hit the stage with his mentor Jay-Z at Phillip’s Arena, the young prodigy took to Atlanta’s CW Loft Friday for a quick ,what else? Warm Up.
Spearheaded by the Crushed Pearls promotion team, the crowd of Hip-Hop heads was given a mixture of local jazz and hip-hop performances before Fayettenam’s Finest rocked the stage.
Taking fans on a journey from beginning to end, Cole performed hits like “Dollar And A Dream” and “Lights Please “before leaving out to what’s become his unofficial anthem, “Everyday A Star Is Born.”
Backstage with the MC helping him celebrating his widespread success and birthday, HipHopWired got a chance to ask him how it felt to be back in the city that’s notoriously shown him love.
Obviously happy to be back in the A, he responded,
“Awesome, it’s f*cking awesome, I love Atlanta!”
Moving on from his sentiments on the city, this newly crowned XXL Freshman promises that his debut album will be available this summer. While he’s already tapped No I.D. and the Neptunes for production on the project, he says he’d love to work with legends in the game from Outkast to Kanye West.
“I would love to work with Outkast man…they’re legends man. Nas, Kanye…all these great people around here one day.”
Stepping away from his official debut, the pride of Fayettville, North Carolina touched on how it feels to carry the entire city on his back. Speaking on his beloved Fayettenam, Cole says it’s a matter of time before the world opens its eyes to the rest of the talent in his small city.
“It feels good as sh*t, still a lot of work to be done. It’s such a small city but we got so much talent. I’m not the only n**ga that can rap from there. It’s about getting on and letting everybody else see who’s coming out and that’s up to them to do their thing.”
Clap for ’em.
XXL finally revealed the cover today for their “10 Freshman For ’10” issue. On it you can see J alongside his freshmen class of Pill, Freddie Gibbs, Big Sean, Jay Rock, Wiz Khalifa, Nipsey Hussle, Donnis, Fashawn and OJ Da Juiceman.
Peep the cover and footage of the performance courtesy of Fli Pelican below.
