(2 fans) Jermaine Lamar Cole (born January 28, 1985), better known by his stage name J. Cole, is a German-born American hip hop recording artist and record producer from Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 2009, he became the first artist to sign to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label. His long-awaited debut album titled Cole World: The Sideline Story was released on September 27, 2011. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, Top R&B Albums and Top Rap Albums chart, selling more than 217,000 in its first week sales.
He received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 54th Grammy Awards.
Ten years ago today, a 16-year-old Taylor Swift was introduced to the world with her endearing, assertive self-titled debut. Now she’s one of the most influential musicians on earth, it's almost beyond comprehension that a decade has gone by and that there was ever a time when we weren't well-versed in her authoritative brand of country-pop, dating history and the precise whereabouts of her two pet cats. With her stratospheric rise to music-industry domination, Swift's songwriting has evolved from the tearstained guitar strums that lamented high-school heartbreak to shiny, chart-busting pop. She’s become a proven force to be reckoned with (and many have tried), thanks to witty lyrics, irresistible melodies and a business acumen well beyond her years. Given that Swift is a woman who leaves secret messages in her liner notes for her legions of fans to unpick, it is only fitting that we give a timeline of the first ten years of Taylor in her own words.
Taylor Swift releases Taylor Swift October 24 2006 Our song is a slamming screen door Sneaking out late tapping on your window When we're on the phone and you talk real slow 'Cause it's late and your mama don't know Our Song, Taylor Swift.But she knew it by 18, when her sophomore album Fearless, greedily overflowing with crossover potential, catapulted her out of Nashville and into the mainstream to international fame and acclaim. Fearless - with hits like Love Story, Forever and Always, Fifteen and You Belong With Me - won four Grammys in 2010, and Taylor became the youngest artist ever to win Album of the Year.
She was also the youngest artist ever to win Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards, and was the winner of two American Music Awards. Definitely worth getting sacked off by the boy on the football team for. Kanye West interrupts Swift at the MTV VMAs September 13, 2009 You should've said no You should've gone home You should've thought twice before you let it all go Should've Said No, Taylor Swift.
By the time Taylor's third studio album Speak Now was released, it was clear that her career was built to last, but her lyrics still revealed a patent disbelief at her own success. Swift's third studio album perhaps has fewer memorable singles than her other work, but the emotionally-charged record has a distinctly transitional feel and was her last offering before she broke free of the shackles of adolescence - with most fans believing her first reference to sex came on Sparks Fly. Speak Now is nonetheless vintage Swift, however, with the bluegrass-inflected Mean hitting out at bullies, the vitriolic anthem of a woman spurned in Better Than Revenge and fairytale daydreaming in Mine. Her defiant references to famous ex-boyfriends John Mayer, Joe Jonas and Taylor Lautner helped to cement her polished brand and prime position as America's sweetheart - and its most accomplished country-music export in years.
03' Adolescence Lyrics: I grew up, a fucking screw up / Tie my shoe up, wish they was newer / Damn, need something newer / In love with the baddest girl in the city, I wish I knew her / I wish I.
Red takes over October 22, 2012 This is the golden age of something good And right, and real State of Grace, Red. By 2012, Swift's persistent reign over the singles charts proved she had outgrown the confines of her country heartland and had started to flex her musical muscles in surprising directions. The diaristic, and characteristically direct fourth studio album was warmly received by many critics and in true Swift style, featured references to former lovers. Red spanned genres, with Eighties-inspired synths on Holy Ground, brooding, rumbling alt-rock on State of Grace, and bracing dubstep on I Knew You Were Trouble - and was more than a hint that she was ready to leave the banjos behind. A new era had begun - and, in true superstar form, this was first signposted by Swift's tresses, which were lopped off and perma-straightened (but have always remained a beaming, golden halo). The full pop transition November 4, 2014 I keep cruising Can't stop, won't stop moving It's like I got this music in my mind Saying it's gonna be alright Shake It Off, 1989. We're not in Nashville anymore, Tay Tay.
Swift's feverishly-anticipated fifth studio album1989 was a bold departure from country and her first 'official' pop record. And a colossal success it was too. Inspired by Eighties Madonna and Annie Lennox,1989 shimmered with mellifluous refrains, euphoric, beat-driven melodies and singles like Blank Space, Shake It Off, Style, and Bad Blood proved Swift could be victorious at anything she turned her hand to as well as demonstrating how much she had matured without losing her distinct - and still-vulnerable - voice. Hailed by critics the world over as one of the best albums of the year, Taylor won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, again, and embarked upon another exhaustive world tour in which she was joined on stage by seemingly every animal, vegetable and mineral ever to be brushed with celebrity. Ryan Adams liked it so much he even covered 1989 in full - to his own acclaim. Swift takes on streaming October 28 2014 Tonight we'll stand, get off our knees Fight for what we've worked for all these years And the battle was long, it's the fight of our lives But we'll stand up, champions tonight Change, Fearless.
Swift’s protest song was released as an Olympic single in 2008, but it encapsulates the resolute stance that she took against Apple Music seven years later. In 2014, Swift removed all of her music from streaming service Spotify, believing there should be an inherent value placed on art, and that the service didn't reward musicians the royalties they deserved. But only when she wrote an open letter to Apple the following year, taking it to task for its decision not to pay artists during the initial three-month free trial period of its new Apple Music streaming service, that the really industry sit up and listen. 'I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company', she wrote. Within hours, Apple conceded and overturned the policy - in an unprecedented triumph that vindicated Swift as a woman not to be messed with, be you courter, competitor or corporation. Swift the problematic feminist May 17, 2015 Now we got problems And I don't think we can solve them You made a really deep cut And baby now we got bad blood Bad Blood, 1989.
In 2014, with the help of new pal Lena Dunham, Swift discovered feminism. It was a seminal moment, and the fans that grew up with her breathed a deep sigh of relief that she had finally given up her overcautious innocuous charade and started to act and speak like a normal woman of her age.With the influence Swift wielded it was an important step to hear her talk openly about misogyny and the need for gender equality. But actions speak louder than words and Swift's phenomenally successful single Bad Blood was hardly an exemplary embodiment of the indestructible bonds of sisterhood. Swift made little attempt to hide that the vehement call-to-arms was directed at pop star Katy Perry, whom she accused of poaching dancers from her tour.
In Bad Blood’s menacing video - VMA-winning, yet again - Swift surrounds herself with her 'squad', a cabal of female pop culture heavyweights that made for an impressive spectacle but had more than a hint of the 'intimidating girl gang' about it. Swift takes on Nicki Minaj July 21, 2015 I'll be strong, I'll be wrong Oh but life goes on Oh I'm just a girl, trying to find a place in this world A Place in This World, Taylor Swift. Even on her very first album, baby Swift knew that growing up in the public eye would be no picnic.
But while she managed to stay squeaky-clean and in the public good graces for several years, the real backlash came in 2015. There were complaints of cultural appropriation in the Shake It Off video, the aforementioned Bad Blood furore and later there would be accusations of whitewashing in her colonial Africa-set video for Wildest Dreams. But the most regrettable Swift misfire was when she chimed in to Nicki Minaj's Twitter complaints about being snubbed for a VMA for her video Anaconda, suggesting it might be because she wasn't skinny or white. Minaj's statements were pertinent and just, but Taylor inferred a personal attack, and muscled in with the usual 'Who, me?' -style faux-hurt we've come to know well.
It evolved into a short spat but Swift admitted she was wrong, and apologised, and the pair all lived happily ever after. Although Minaj's points about the unfair prevalence of recognition for white artists still stand. Kimye vs Swift August 2016 You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me But we are never ever ever getting back together We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Red. It had all been going so well between Swift and Kanye - bygones were bygones and, indeed, seven years had gone by since The Incident at the VMAs. But all hell broke loose with the release of West's single Famous, which included the line, 'I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b- famous'.
In an implosive nutshell: Taylor's rep stated that she had warned Kanye about using misogynistic language, and that she was unaware of the 'b-' lyric. Kanye claimed that he'd cleared the line with Swift, and played her the song before its release. She slammed him at the Grammys, while his music video for the song featured Kanye in bed with a naked waxwork of Swift, and later, his wife Kim Kardashian West claimed in a GQ interview that Swift had 'totally approved' the lyric - and that they had it recorded on video. Are you keeping up?
Swift then claimed the video didn't exist, and lo and behold, via the irrefutable medium of a Snapchat story, Kim released snippets of the footage, including Swift ostensibly approving the song (though, admittedly we have no evidence that she was made aware of the 'b-' line). Some claimed Swift had finally been exposed as a 'snake' after years of playing a victim, others believe Kardashian may have broken the law by releasing the footage without Swift’s permission. We may never know the truth. But one imagines Swift won't be making any jovial cameos on Keeping Up with the Kardashians any time soon.
Swift and Calvin Harris break up 1 June 2016 Got a long list of ex-lovers They'll tell you I'm insane But I've got a blank space baby And I'll write your name Blank Space, 1989. The devilish Blank Space on 1989 sent up Taylor's public perception as a licentious man-eater, with nary a male in the world of celebrity untouched by her charms. But her romance with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris was real, and lasted 15 months - we watched the whole rosy affair meticulously documented on social media (since deleted, by the way). Alas, it wasn't to be, for reasons we're still not quite sure of, but reportedly included that Harris was 'intimidated' by Taylor's success, the pair parted ways this June. It all seemed perfectly amicable, until weeks later, pictures of Taylor cosying up to actor Tom Hiddleston sent tabloids, teens, twentysomethings, and Twitter into a frenzy. With a debacle about whether or not Taylor helped Harris write hit single (with Rihanna) This Is What You Came For, things really derailed and, well, he's just another name on the long list of ex-lovers.
As, now, is Hiddleston. Hiddleswift September 2016 They are the hunters, we are the foxes And we run Baby, I know places we won't be found And they'll be chasing their tails trying to track us down I Know Places, 1989. Nobody's watching, Tom, no I promise you, it's really private, if we just stand here in this open public space, no one will find us. Hold my hand will you? Look at me – no they're not paparazzis, they're just fellow beach-goers enjoying the July breeze and the fresh salty Atlantic air. No they're just sunbathing, everyone takes long-lens DSLR cameras to the beach, you know that.
No they're not pointing them at us, don't be silly. Why don't you wear a t-shirt with my initials on? It'll be cute. Nobody will see. You won't look like a mug. Why doesn't my mum come with us on a date? No, don't pick up that copy of The Sun – put it down Tom – it'll be fine, it won't affect your chances of becoming the next Bond – err – TINKER TAYLOR SNOGS A SPY.