when did j cole start rapping

J. Cole started rapping when he was around 12 years old , in his early teens, and he began taking it seriously as a possible career around the year 2000.

Quick Scoop: J. Cole’s early rap beginnings

• Jermaine Lamarr Cole (J. Cole) grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he first got into writing rhymes as a kid.

• He began rapping at about 12, learning how to use wordplay and tell stories through his lyrics.

• Around 2000, after his mother bought him an ASR-X sampler, he started treating music and rap as something he could really pursue as a career, sharpening both his rapping and production.

From hobby to serious grind

• Through his teens he rapped under early names like “Blaza” and “Therapist,” joined a local group called Bomm Sheltuh, and kept practicing both beats and bars.

• His first big public step wasn’t as a kid rapper, but with his debut mixtape The Come Up in 2007, which is when most fans see his “official” rap career as starting.

So in fan terms: he started rapping at 12, but his career really kicks off in the mid‑2000s with The Come Up (2007).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.