Chords for J.Cole Talks About Debuting At #1 | Hoppus On Music

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[A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
My first guest recently had the number one country album.
Oh, wait, I'm sorry.
He had the number one album in the country.
Oh, that makes a lot more sense.
Please welcome [N] J.
Cole. _ _ _
_ _ Welcome to the show.
How you doing, man?
Good.
All right, your debut album, J.
Cole,
Cole World, The Sideline Story,
beat out Blink-182 as the number one spot
on the Billboard chart of the first week of release.
My question is, why do you hate us so much?
Oh, well, see what happened when I was younger.
No, I'm playing.
I was actually really nervous when they, you know,
gave me finally got a release date,
because all my fans know I was waiting around forever
for a release date.
And when they finally gave it to us,
we were looking, you know, like all artists probably do
if you're worried about sales, and we're like,
oh, who's coming out?
No other rappers were coming out, but I was like, no.
Like, yo, Blink-182 was on the same day.
And, you know, of course, I know you guys got, you know,
incredible fans, so I was just,
I never thought that that would happen, by the way,
like, you know, so I apologize.
No, it's cool.
Congratulations.
That's awesome.
Very happy for you.
Thank you very much.
You started writing lyrics at the age of 12.
Is that right?
Yeah.
What were you writing at 12?
My cousin rapped like the no-limit,
like, Master P-type rapper,
so I was kind of, like, imitating him.
So I was like, I'm a no-limit soldier. _
I'm smoking on that doze.
It was terrible stuff I wasn't even doing.
But then I started rapping about, like,
how much better I was than people.
And those were my first raps, for real.
Like, I'm better than you because_
And it was all my raps were like that.
So what kind of influences were you having
when you were writing those kind of lyrics?
At that time, Eminem was out,
_ _ Cannabis, Big Pun, Rory Safa,
now all these real lyrical and, like, battle-like rappers,
like, those were the guys I would imitate.
But then I started telling stories more,
and I started leaning more toward, like, a Nas
or, like, a Tupac who I had already loved.
But I fell in love, more in love,
with, like, the way they told stories,
and that's kind of how I evolved.
I stopped, like, just rapping about
how much better I am than you,
and I just started actually talking about something.
That's cool.
I read somewhere that you actually had a job
working at a roller rink for a while.
Is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
I had a job from when I was 14
all the way to, like, 19 years old, 20 years old.
Like, way too old to be working at a skate rink, but, like_
So did you run out to skates?
Yeah, I used to have to take your shoes,
give you the skates.
It was bad.
Did you ever get on the microphone and say, like,
all right, this next one is just for the ladies.
Ladies' skate.
Yeah, you did that?
That was me.
That was you?
Nice.
[E] _
And your first moniker that you used was Blaza.
Is that right?
Blaza, yeah.
Blaza, did you give that to yourself
or was that given to you?
Yeah, I gave that one to myself.
Blaza.
Yeah.
Came up with it on my own.
And what did it mean?
It didn't really mean anything.
I actually had some rap names before that
that were terrible, even worse than that, but_
Worse than Blaza?
Worse than that, yeah. Like what?
[Ab] I was Desperado.
[D] Nice!
I had a [Eb] homeboy that was like Casanova.
We was like Desperado and [N] Casanova.
That was terrible.
We were like 12, 13 years old or so.
You were actually the first artist
signed to Jay-Z's Rock Nation.
What was it like meeting him for the first time?
It was crazy.
My hands were sweating so much.
That was the only thing I was worried about.
I was like, yo, I hope I don't give this man
a handshake or a dap and just have my hand like_
And he won't say it, but in his head, like, God!
Like, it was just_ _
That's all I was thinking about.
You know what I'm saying?
But the meeting went great.
I played music for him.
He told me, man, your music sounds like a breath of fresh air.
And, you know, a few weeks later,
I found out he actually did want to do the deal,
so it was great.
And you signed your deal,
and it took about two years before your album came out.
Two and a half years from after I signed my record deal.
Did it seem like forever?
It seemed like forever, yeah.
Did you ever question him?
No, I never_
Did you ever call him up angry?
No.
Maybe a text, angry text.
Really?
Passive-aggressive text?
[C] Yeah, like, come on, man.
Hey, when's my record gonna [G] come out?
It's been two years.
Yeah, it's not like that,
because I probably would have disappeared
if my tone had been the right one.
Right, right.
But, you know, something along the lines of,
man, let's go, you know, something like that.
I read somewhere that you graduated
St.
John's Magna Cum Laude.
How did you record and do so well in school?
I've just always been a great multitasker,
from high school, from middle school.
Like, I've always been into sports
and then still got good grades
and still hanging out and still going to the mall
and still juggling girls.
Like, I've always just been good at, like,
handling_
How do you juggle girls?
Uh, you got to have strong arms, first of all.
What's the trick, for real?
Like, what do you have to do to juggle girls?
It's wrist flick.
All right, hang on, I need a [N] pen.
Can you write this down?
All right, well, if you think you're so smart,
I got a quiz for you, all right?
Are you willing to participate in our quiz?
I mean, I can answer anything you throw my way, so, yeah.
All right, Mr.
Magna Cum Awesome.
All right, how many light years equals a parsec?
Uh, 3.26.
That's right, 3.26.
Yeah.
All right, in what period
did the Kamakura Japanese dynasty reign?
Kamakura, that's a good one.
Uh, if I'm not wrong, I believe it's from 1192 to 1333 A.D.
Check that for me.
That's right.
_ Very good.
_ You know.
All right, in calculus, what is a derivative? _
_ Uh, it's hard to explain to people
that don't understand calculus,
but it's a measure of how a function changes
as its input changes, if you can.
That's right.
You know what, I don't know if that's right or not,
but that's what they have down as the answer,
so it makes sense to me.
All right, last one.
What number am I thinking of? _ _
You're not thinking of a number,
you're thinking about a pastrami sandwich right now.
_ I am!
I'm thinking about a pastrami sandwich!
Well, thank you very much for being here.
I really appreciate your time.
You smell terrific.
Congratulations on all your success.
[A] Thank you, man.
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