In prepping your first album, which also happens to be the first album for Jay-Z's Roc Nation label, it's probably a good idea to take your time. And that's exactly what J.Cole seems to be doing. "It's just about finishing up," Cole tells the BoomBox. "I told someone I was 70% done but I'm scaling back now. I'm thinking more like 55%. I'm a perfectionist and I feel like I can do better songs then what I already have."A native of North Carolina, Cole has been perfecting his craft over the last several years while attending St. Johns in New York City and says he found his way to Jay's presence via Mark Pitts, Biggie Smalls' manager. "[Jay-Z" heard a song I had called 'Lights Please' and from there he was interested and wanted to have a meeting," Cole says. "He set up a meeting that I didn't really think was going to happen but it happened and from then, the meeting went great. He wanted to do the deal."
So, what can we expect from Cole's debut? "If I had to describe it so far, I'd say like Outkast mixed with a 'College Dropout' Kanye." And even though Jay featured J.Cole on the 'Blueprint 3' track 'A Star is Born,' Cole doesn't seem to be that interested in having features on his album. "I like features but they have to be the right features. It can't just be a name, like I got X, Y, Z. It's got to make sense. I have people in mind for certain songs, but they're not the biggest people. Very low key but it will make the song better."
iTunes currently has J. Cole's single 'Lights Please' available; his latest mixtape, 'The Warm Up,' is available for download at his MySpace page
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