When I was in school in Raleigh, we heard about LB fairly quickly. Of course it didn't hurt that 9th was DJing with a couple of my boys from the school (Shout out to the Fantastic 4, lol)

I went to middle/HS with Phonte so that made that shit cray

By the time J.Cole came around, I had already left school and been working for some time. The Listening was already a classic by this point so I am not as familiar with Cole until he dropped that mixtape some years back.