Jermaine Lamarr Cole, born on January 28, 1985, at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany, moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, when he was just a baby, alongside his mother, Kay, and older brother, Zach. His father, an African American Army vet, left the family early on, leaving his mom—a white American postal worker—to raise him. Growing up biracial, Cole has shared how he identifies with both sides of his family, though he feels he was always seen as a Black man by others. Music and basketball were his early passions, and he even played first-chair violin until 2003. By twelve, he started rapping and got a musical sampler from his mom that pushed him deeper into producing, eventually taking on the name "Therapist" as he started working with local groups. Cole graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA and moved to New York for college at St. John's University, where he initially studied computer science but switched to communications, feeling more drawn to it. He became president of a pan-African student coalition and graduated magna cum laude in 2007, though he only officially received his degree in 2015 due to an unpaid library fine. In his early days, Cole worked odd jobs, from bill collecting to being a skate rink mascot. He also faced tough family struggles, especially as his mother battled addiction after separating from his stepfather..