On Dec 3^rd Roc Nation artist J. Cole took the stage in a sold out show at Sound Academy in Toronto, ON.

The line outside the venue, about four people wide and extending for a 100 or so meters, was visible as soon as you turned onto Polson Street.  Concertgoers huddled together in the stinging early winter air hours before the doors opened to see an artist who has yet to release an official album.  Pretty impressive.

The venue hosted a who’s who of Toronto hip-hop and media.  Attendees included Kardinal Offishal, 1LoveTO, Drake’s ATF /OVO crew, Hiphopcanada.com, Rochester, Hustlegrl and Stolen From Africa to name a few.  Inside the venue, there was palpable electricity as the audience grew increasingly excited for his arrival.

Young upstart and Toronto native Jahvon, label mate to Sean Kingston on J.R. Rotem’s Beluga Heights record company, opened the show to a lukewarm reception.  Producer and artist Rich Kidd followed with his signature high-energy baritone and call-and-response stage antics.  The Ghanaian native ended his set with his Jackson 5 sampling single “Take it Slow”, which sounds like a droopy eyed bedtime ode drowned in slurps of cough-medicine haze.  He shouted out all major areas in Toronto, paying special allegiance to Ridgeway (his hype man touted a Ridgeway street sign as he performed), before exiting for the headliner.

J. Cole, clad in a varsity jacket bearing his horns and a halo imprint and a patch with adjoined Canadian and American flags, wasted no time in launching his set.  From the outset he gave it his all.  He conveyed a commanding stage presence, crowd control, and that ill defined have-it-or-you-don’t aura or ‘swag’ as it’s referred to in hip hop.

The first half consisted of fan favorites from his second mixtape The Warm Up. Evidently still in shape from his basketball days, he exhibited excellent breath control when fiercely rhyming every nook and cranny of “Dead Presidents ll”, “Lights Please”, “Grown Simba”, “Last Call” and “Dollar and a Dream Pt 2” among other Warm Up cuts.  The crowd comfortably chimed along with him, further solidifying the fact that he has strong support in Toronto.

This 25-year-old college grad from Fayetteville, North Carolina, seemingly a regular guy, is a conduit for something else otherworldly when performing. First there is his tireless voice that betrays fury and earnest passion in equal measure.  Then there are the rapper intangibles – hand and body movements that define cool, accurately timed pauses and head nods to accentuate a rhyme, and a natural rapport with the crowd that builds as the show progresses.  In other words, the kid’s a star.  If you didn’t gather as much from listening to him, you will from seeing him live.

Not since our very own Drake Drizzy Rogers (nicknamed so because Lil Wayne initially thought it was his last name after receiving e-mails from Drake’s Rogers account) has an unsigned MC generated so much hoopla in this city.

Cole ripped through numbers from last month’s mixtape release Friday Night Lights – “Who Dat”, “Blow Up”, “You Got It”, “Higher” and the Drake assisted “In the Morning”.  As was expected the hometown hero came out to support the visitor to rapturous applause.  Drake’s appearance was understated, perhaps purposefully so.  He came out wearing a seemingly old dull green hoodie that he used to cover much of his head.  He stayed for a few minutes to perform his verse off of his own “Up All Night” before saluting the city and leaving.

As the show was closing Cole performed his guest verse on Jay-Z’s “A Star is Born” twice – first as a rendition with the keyboard then over the actual beat.  It was an apt closing.  If that night was any indication, it seems he will be in the public eye for a while to come.