Humility can be a rare trait in hip-hop but J. Cole stays as grounded as any rapper today, with the above photo serving as the most recent piece of evidence. Cole was spotted riding a public bus through Queens and stopped to take a flick with his fellow passengers. The North Carolina rapper attended St. John's University which is located in Hillcrest, Queens so his knowledge of New York City public transportation is at least somewhat informed by experience.

Just last week (July 13), J. Cole surprised Bas fans by coming out as a special guest at the Dreamville rapper's Highline Ballroom show in New York City, so it would seem that Cole is making an extended stay out of his time in the Big Apple. Check the photo of him riding the bus above, which has been captioned, "He understands our struggle from which he came. The game hasn't changed him."

Cole of course isn't the first rapper to be spotted riding with the MTA as back in 2012, a video showed Jay Z taking the R train to his own show at Barclays Center. Considering the banner year and a half Cole has had, his bus riding appearance is all the more impactful. In May, Billboard named J. Cole as the highest paid rapper of 2015, citing the $5.5 million he made off of touring, $1.5 million in album sales and $788,000 in streaming revenue. He as well earned $1.1 million in publishing. Following that distinction, Cole saw two tracks from Forest Hills Drive go platinum in a months time, with “No Role Modelz” hitting the million mark in May and “Wet Dreamz” following in June.

32 Rappers Going Platinum in 2016

More From XXL