Newcomer J. Cole recently explained why he admires Hip-Hop heavyweight Jay-Z, and tells how it’s deeper than his lyrical genius that always seems to awe the world.

The newest Roc Nation signee values Jay’s decisions to invest in endeavors outside of the typical Hip-Hop ventures. He states that he looks to Jay for inspiration, saying:

“Jay handled his business in the best way a rapper can handle his business. So I try to model myself and my moves after those he’s made. I’m not necessarily following it exactly, but just knowing that you got to invest your money and think outside of the rap box. That’s major.”

Jigga is partial owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, runs his own label Roc Nation, his clothing line Roc-A-Wear, and is involved in Hewlett-Packard, and Budweiser, just to name a few.     

Jay-Z’s stage presence also has paved the way for Cole, in an interview with DJ Whoo Kid, he speaks on how Hov naturally controls his audience.

“I learned pretty much from him that confidence is everything. If you feel like you deserve to be up there, which of course he does, he feels like that, it shows and all the minor stuff you used to worry about like what kind of hand movements am I supposed to do, all that goes out the window when you got the confidence like, ‘Yo, I deserve to be up there, people came to see me.’ So it’s really treating it like that. I used to worry about performing like, ‘Ah man, I’m trying to please every side of the crowd,’ like make sure they getting love, they getting love. Jay just plays wherever he wants. If he wants to play the center for the whole verse, he’ll do that. And all that comes from confidence, when you feel you deserve to be up there.”  

Interesting enough, J. Cole met Jay-Z by persistence, from trying to do a little social networking through MySpace, to standing outside of studios in hopes of landing an internship — Cole was determined to link up with Jay and make the extraordinary a reality.

As for him being compared to Jigga’s formal label mate Memphis Bleek, he explains that Bleek is nothing like him and he nothing like Bleek. “People always ask me, ‘Yo man, how do you feel about the Memphis Bleek comparison?” Cole said while speaking to VIBE.

He continued by saying that he replies with a simple statement,

“Memphis Bleek is somebody totally different than me. He has a different story, different relationship with Jay, he came in at a different time. Like, why are you insinuating that Memphis Bleek isn’t happy with where he’s at? Maybe he’s comfortable and content with that. Me? I know where I want to go and I know what I want to be. I knew from an early point and that’s where I’m trying to go. Like, I have nothing to do with who Jay signed before. It’s all about what I bring to the table.”