J. Cole‘s net worth is pretty impressive for someone who seemingly doesn’t seem to care about money. As one of the realest rappers in the game, J. Cole tends to rap about the negatives of money rather than the positives, something rare for a rapper these days. That doesn’t mean he won’t take a paycheck, though.
Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born on January 28, 1985, better known as J. Cole, is a German-born American rapper from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole first received recognition in 2007, following the release of his debut mixtape The Come Up. Shortly after the release of The Come Up, Cole was contacted by American rapper Jay-Zand subsequently signed to his record label Roc Nation, in 2009. In that same year, Cole released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, which was itself followed by Cole’s third mixtape, Friday Night Lights, in 2010. His debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, Top R&B Albums and Top Rap Albums chart, selling more than 218,000 in its first week. He received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 54th Grammy Awards.
J. Cole has had a hot of a start to his career as any rapper in the last decade. But how much money has his critical success earned him?
J. Cole Net Worth as of 2015: $20 Million
Graduating magna cum laude from St. John’s University, J. Cole probably would have gone on to be successful anyway, but becoming a rapper definitely made him richer than he could have ever imagined. We take a look back at his career to examine his net worth.
2007
Soon after graduating college, Cole released his first mixtape, The Come Up. The mixtape was well received but wasn’t awarded significant recognition.
2008 – 2009
He released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, on June 15, 2009 to positive reviews.
Cole appeared on Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint 3(2009), on the track “A Star Is Born.” He is featured on both Wale’s debut album, Attention Deficit (2009) and mixtape Back to the Feature(2009) respectively.
2010
In early 2010, Cole was chosen as one of Beyond Race Magazine’s “50 Great Breakthrough Artists,” he ranked 49, resulting in the cover story of the publication’s #11 issue, as well as a Q&A for the magazine’s site. He was also featured in XXL magazine 2010 version of Top Ten Freshmen.
J. Cole began a college tour from March 19, 2010 to April 30, 2010 concluding in New Brunswick, NJ at Rutgers University’s annual Rutgersfest. The tour also featured a stop at Syracuse University for a show with fellow rapper, Wiz Khalifa
On March 31, he performed a new song titled “Who Dat” and released the song as a single on April 30, 2010. Cole was also featured on Young Chris’ song “Still the Hottest” as well as Miguel’s debut single “All I Want Is You.” Additionally, Cole was featured on titled “We On”, a song that failed to make final tracklist for DJ Khaled’s Victory LP.
In August 2010 J. Cole, was awarded the UMA Male Artist of the Year thanks to his heralded The Warm Up mixtape and a high profile deal with Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation at the 2010 Underground Music Awards.
On November 12, 2010, J. Cole released his third official mixtape titled Friday Night Lights. The tape included features from Drake, Wale and Omen with most of the production being handled by Cole himself.
2011
Cole served as a supporting act for Drake on the Light Dreams and Nightmares UK Tour, January 5–21, 2011.
Cole World: The Sideline Story was released September 27, 2011 debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 218,000 copies in its first-week of sales. As of December 2, 2011, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments and sales of 500,000 copies.
On October 24, 2011, during an interview with Hot 106’s Rise & Grind morning show, Cole revealed he had begun working on his second studio album, with hopes of releasing it in June 2012.
2012
J. Cole played for the Eastern Team in the 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game.
On February 24, 2012 J. Cole reached two million followers on Twitter, he celebrated by releasing the song “Grew Up Fast.”
On March 1, 2012, J. Cole returned to his home town, Fayetteville, North Carolina. To celebrate his return he released the song “Visionz of Home” and launched an event titled “Dreamville Weekend” to inspire the youth of his hometown to achieve great things.
J. Cole performed for the first time in Africa during the Big Brother Africa 7 opening ceremony on May 6, 2012.
2013
On June 28, 2013, J. Cole’s second studio album, Born Sinner, is released. Born Sinner sold 297,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, finishing approximately 30,000 copies short of Kanye West’s Yeezus. , “This is art, and I can’t compete against the Kanye West celebrity and the status that he’s earned just from being a genius,” Cole said.
2014
On January 28, 2014, J. Cole announced that his record label Dreamville Records had signed a distribution deal with Interscope Records, and released a label compilation mixtape titled Revenge of the Dreamers.
On November 16, 2014, Cole released a video where he announced he would be releasing his third album, titled 2014 Forest Hills Drive, on December 9, 2014. The video also featured footage regarding the making-of the album. Additionally, the album’s name sake was revealed to be the address of Cole’s childhood home in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
2015
On February 13, 2015, Cole announced that he would further promote the album with a tour entitled, Forest Hills Drive Tour.
On March 31, 2015, 2014 Forest Hills Drive was certified platinum, making it the first hip-hop album with no features to achieve platinum status since 1989.