Though he’s one of the few successful rappers to represent North Carolina, Jermaine Cole was actually born in Frankfurt, Germany, where his G.I. dad was stationed. Cole was born on an Army base. Eight months later, Cole’s family moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he would grow up. His parents eventually divorced, and Cole lived predominantly with his mom (who was originally from Germany), brother, and stepfather after she remarried.
“I started off on a military base, and I remember moving — I guess this was after my parents got divorced — from there to a trailer park. It was one of the scariest places I’ve been to, because I was always worried about my mother,” he told NPR. It wasn’t until he was in the fifth grade that Cole’s family moved into the suburbs. As a young biracial kid, seeing both sides of the track left an impression on him. “That’s why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I’ve seen so many,” he explained.
Nicki
