J. Cole Talks Producing, His Inspirations & Working With No I.D.

First introduced to his lyrical talents through his mixtapes, the sporadic releases from J. Cole over the last year have revealed a lot about the man himself, from his utter disdain for Sallie Mae to his Illmatic yearnings. However, even more glaring has been his ascendancy to the upper echelon of the genre’s best producers. Personally, it was hearing “Blow Up” blaring out of a car stereo outside of Grand Central where the mass effect of hand claps and guitar riffs produced my most recent “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” moment.
And then I knew.
The records might fill you in on what makes him tick as a persona and emcee, but in a sit-down conducted a couple of months back, Jermaine offered up a crazy amount of insight into his work behind the boards, from his inspirations, his cratedigging tendencies, and even the role genetics may have played in it all.