Buck The System

And other secrets of J Cole’s unorthodox path to rap’s top tier

- J Cole

You can tell how famous someone is by the number of people assembled in a room, setting things up, ready to spring into action at the exact moment of their arrival. J Cole has about 12 waiting for him at a studio on the Friday of NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. While he’s over at Spectrum Centre, home of the Charlotte Hornets, finalizing details for his halftime performance on Sunday night, his team has turned a mellow lounge space into a West Elmdecorated war room, preparing to film a few interviews for a documentary he’s working on.

A makeup artist gently cleans her brushes, somewhere someone is audibly losing at ping-pong, a cameraman angles a tripod to J Cole height, several people are typing. He enters imperceptibly, all rubber limbs and soft energy, setting offa slow ripple of awareness as people realize he’s there. He makes his way around the room, shaking hands, slapping palms, clapping backs, bumping chests. He pauses and asks if anybody ordered him lunch. Sandwiches freeze on their journey to mouths. Everyone avoids eye contact for a tremulous second, hoping he doesn’t notice how the room smells overwhelmingly of chips, because no, nobody ordered J Cole lunch.

It’s all good, he says, as someone insists he eats the chicken sandwich belonging to the unlucky bastard who’s stepped out to find a phone charger. Someone puts his otherwise decorative Jordans to their intended athletic use, running to get a menu for him.