Interview with Hipster Rap Artist Cole King

“Thanks for talking to me.”

“I took a masterclass in college with Jay Zone in college and he said to take every interview that you’re offered.”

Model and Rapper, Cole King is going through a little bit of a rebrand right now. I’m talking to him in the back of a SUV as he is driving around New York. He just moved there from his hometown of Saratoga, NY. He rose to moderate noteriety on Youtube and on Twitter under the Rap name, “Dao Jones.”

“It’s too confusing for people to understand or spell, it’s my last chance to just be Cole King so that’s the direction we’re going in.”

The first thing you’ll notice about Cole is his prominent beard. It’s thick with shades of brown and red. It almost has its own presence, it is as apart of the rapper as the lyrics. He says that it is popular with the ladies and started as part of “No Shave November” in 2013. 2 years later, it’s still here. However, for the women vying for a beard owner, he is taken for the time being so you’ll have to keep on the hunt!

Long before the beard, Cole was around music, he grew in a musical and creative household. He is one of 5 and everyone is an artist/creative type. In the evenings the family would gather around the piano as he father brought the house down. At 15 he started making music of his own and fell in love with the hip-hop beats that were blasting out of the radio at the time.

He’s his own producer and creatives his own beats from his influences of hip-hop, folk, soul, R&B and modern pop influences. He is one of those unique rappers that can lyricize as well as lay down sweet dulcet tones in singing lines that accentuate the story he is trying to tell about Millennials, college, and young people on the come up, deep in the struggle to find meaning, purpose and enough change for their next trip to Chipotle.

I met Cole King through a recommendation on twitter. One of the music accounts I follow sent me one of his videos and after I finished exploring his music I knew I wanted to talk to him and so I tracked him down on twitter and we connected. He is very busy on social media. You can regularly find him talking about New York sports and a variety of topics around his music and his burgeoning modeling career with Red Models. Even though it is a hard balance he is glad to be quitting the 2 hour commute to every modeling gig or go-see from Saratoga. It’s also enabling a new studio for him right in NYC for his next EP and giving him a chance to finish his transition from Dao Jones to Cole King.

He’s white, he’s independent, he’s a rapper. Hip-hop has had some controversy about the white/black divide and when I ask about he clams up on me. He admits that he, “hasn’t talked publicly” about it but admits that he doesn’t know what its like to not be himself (a white man) in America. He is culturally aware and says that he understands the level of privilege within the industry. “I don’t know the complexities or problems when a white artist gains success in the industry.” Its a touchy subject right now for obvious reasons and he is still ruminating on it and when he needs an opinion he turns to the best source: his black friends and their opinions on white artists. However, there is no denying that there is a demand for white rap artists and he is there to fulfill that need.

Cole King has made a name for himself as an independent artist with his creative and professional videos created by his friends and partners. The independent path is very popular and he admits that it has been hard but he has been blessed with the right team, “You’re a small fish in a big pond. You have to have financing.” There is no machine but he says, “You have to have partners.” It appears that his path has been profitable as his career and his star begins to rise in the bustling city of New York as he cuts his way into the big time.

“The only truth is infinite love, everything else is an illusion.”