J. Cole – 2012

“If the world ends tomorrow, damn. I would be mad as shit for 2 reasons. First, I’m not with my family. That would suck.
What would also be wack is if I never got to drop this song.

Summer of 08′. Mark Pitts meeting had happened a month ago. He said he fucks with me, but he not talking about signing me. Ok. Fuck that. I’ma make my new shit so stupid that the next time he meet with me he gonna HAVE to sign me. Same summer I made Grown Simba and started The Warm Up with a “fuck it” mentality. A few special songs I made that summer haven’t dropped yet. This is one of them.

2012

Some of the most fun I ever had making a record. Alone in my room, making the beat, writing the raps, Jammin to this.
Here we are, Years Later, and right on time. Enjoy

– oh yea. Shout to the spanish nigga that came through and played the percussions. To the cool ass horn player that laced me, I forgot his name. This was my first Quincy Jones moment. Shout to Lil Cole. Shout to Aristotle. Shout to YOU.” – J. Cole

Michael Tubbs TEDx Talk: Upset the Setup (Video)

Michael Tubbs elucidates to empower as opposed to inspire those in poverty to UpSet the SetUp.

A Stockton, CA native, Michael Tubbs graduated from Stanford University, where he received both his bachelor’s with honors and his master’s in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies. Tubbs has been honored as Stanford University’s Dinkelspiel award winner, Outstanding Achievement Award by the Alumni Association, and as a Truman Scholar and a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist. His experiences include working with marginalized populations in El Salvador and
 in Capetown, participating in the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides reenactment with original Freedom Riders, and internships at The White House and Google. Michael serves as the founder and executive director of The Phoenix Scholars and the co-founder for the Summer Success and Leadership Academy at the University of the Pacific, interventions he designed to equip and empower “at-risk” youth to chart paths to opportunity.