Famous rapper J. Cole said he began smoking at six years old during a recent interview with Golden State Warriors President and General Manager Bob Myers for his ESPN podcast, “Lead by Example.”
The artist discussed the dynamics of his family and important life lessons he learned at a young age. “At six years old, I was smoking cigarettes regularly around the neighborhood,” Cole said on the show.
“The thing was, my brother’s four years older than me, almost four years, and … I was always hanging around the older kids in the neighborhood that he was hanging around, and they were smoking, and I was young and fearless and trying to be cool. It was like, ‘Oh, y’all smoking? Let me see that,'” Cole continued.
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“This was literally a life-changing moment,” Cole then said about the effect his smoking had on his mother.
“When she smelled cigarettes on my breath, her face was like, it was heartbroken, it was disbelief, it was crushed,” he recalled.
“I remember the look on her face. She was like, ‘You have been smoking.’” (RELATED: REPORT: Production On Cameron Diaz’s Comeback Movie Halted Over Alleged Scam Targeting Co-Star Jamie Foxx)
Cole said that was the first time he really understood the impact of his choices.
“That was the first time that I became aware that, ‘Oh, my actions can hurt someone else. Things that I do, my decisions, can hurt somebody else,'” the rapper said.