J.Cole is a rapper who has worked incredibly hard to get to the top. His real name is Jermaine Lamarr Cole and he’s released dozens of songs across several albums.
Through his lyrics, you can hear the message of his humble beginnings all the way to the rise to the top. Non-pretentious and inspiring to the next generation. If you’re looking for some motivation, then here are some of the best quotes by J Cole:
1. We got dreams and we got the right to chase ’em.
2. 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.
3. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.
4. Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.
5. Don’t let bridges you cross be bridges you burn.
6. One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose. Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.
7. It’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.
8. 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.
9. My intuition is telling me there’ll be better days.
10. I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I don’t know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me.
11. I sit in silence and find whenever I meditate.
12. Keep grindin’ boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.
13. But the only real change come from inside.
14. I swear I walk with God, but the devil keeps following.
15. 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.
16. There’s a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone.
17. Anything I do, I want to do it well.
18. Catch me, I’ve fallen in love for the first time.
19. 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.
20. I flip my misfortune and grow me a fortune.
21. It’s no coincidence that all the greatest rappers – whoever you put in your top five – I guarantee you they are great storytellers.
22. You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.
23. If you place your importance on appreciation and love, that’s enough.
24. One day, I’ll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it’s nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.
25. To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is.
26. Hard to move on when you always regret one.
27. 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.
28. If I fell in love with you before I ever even knew. I catch your eye then look away as if it never happened.
29. My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.
30. Am I about dollars or about change? Am I about knowledge or brains? Freedom or big chains? They don’t feel my pain.
31. As we speak I’m at peace, no longer scared to die.
32. Anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.
33. Promise to my momma I’mma make it to the top, so I’mma keep climbing ‘til my heartbeat drop.
34. Tupac was just so passionate about what he believes in and not afraid to say anything.
35. I try to find employment even if it’s wiping toilets.
36. No such thing as a life that’s better than yours, no such thing – no such thing…
37. In this life ain’t no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance.
38. The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.
39. If you ain’t aim too high, then you aim too low!
40. I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.
41. 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.
42. 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.
43. Don’t wanna die, ’cause now you’re here And I just wanna be right by your side.
44. Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.
45. 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.
46. The same ones you love will bring you pain.
47. 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.
48. They say time is money but really, it’s not. If we ever go broke, time is all we got.
49. Sometimes I think pain is just a lack of understanding If we could only understand it all, would we feel no pain? God must feel no pain.
50. A little jealousy in a relationship is healthy. It’s always nice to know someone is afraid to lose you.
51. Sometimes our dreams come true, sometimes our fears do too.
52. Every loser gotta win and every winner gotta lose someday.
53. In a game full of liars it turns out that I’m the truth. Some say that rap’s alive. It turns out that I’m the proof.
54. Life is all about the evolution.
55. 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.
56. 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.
57. But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you’re aware of it, it’s happening.
58. 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.
59. People congratulate me. I just tell them God is good.
60. I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.
61. Damn, cold world. I never thought I’d see the day that you’re my old girl.
62. Nothing lasts forever, but at least we’ve got these memories.
63. My parents were divorced by the time I was even conscious – like, I don’t remember them ever being together.
64. Life is a movie, pick your own role, Climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.
65. My life is too crazy, no actor could play me.
66. 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.
67. Time will tell who is on my side.
68. 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.
69. But see I’m growing and getting stronger with every breath.
70. I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.
71. 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.
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing. So if I’m playing basketball, if I’m taking the SATs, like, there’s a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it’s the same thing.
75. I no longer bury demons, I be a vessel for the truth until I’m barely breathing, I’m singing.
76. 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.
77. 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…
78. College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.
79. Every time you go to sleep you look like you in Heaven.
80. I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.
81. 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.
82. And the strongest drug of them all – Love.
83. 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?
84. You can’t reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.
85. The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.
86. One thing about the men that’s controlling the pen That write history, they always seem to white-out they sins.
87. 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.
88. You keep falling victim ‘cause you’re insecure, and when I tell you you’re beautiful you can’t be sure.
89. There’s still value in a CD, even if it’s just nostalgic. People are still willing to pay. But it can’t compare to a digital-only release where you can control the exact time that it’ll come out, you know what I mean? So whoever finds how to bridge that gap is gonna make a lot of money.
90. If practice made perfect, I’m practice’s baby.
91. 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.
92. Fell in love through photograph I don’t even know your name.
93. I’m not a conscious rapper, all those things we talk about, the struggle, the pain, the outlook to the future, keep your head up. I try to put all those positive things into a regular human character, which is myself.
94. I’m controlling my mind, the days are warm The nights are cold, the lost is found, I’m found.
95. I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did.
96. 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.
97. I had to cut some people off ’cause they was using me.
98. Producing all my own songs and refusing to go to the hot producer. That’s the biggest risk I’ve taken so far.
99. 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.
100. I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.
101. My heart is big, I want to give too much.
102. You can dream but don’t neglect the execution.