J Cole

Rapper J. Cole performs onstage during The Meadows Music & Arts Festival on October 1, 2016 in New York City.
Image: Angela Weiss / AFP

It’s finally a rap: J Cole teases release date of ‘The Off-Season’ album

North Carolina-raised rapper J Cole announced the 14 May release of his long-awaited album ‘The Off-Season’ this week.

J Cole

Rapper J. Cole performs onstage during The Meadows Music & Arts Festival on October 1, 2016 in New York City.
Image: Angela Weiss / AFP

J Cole made the official announcement of The Off-Season release via Twitter on Tuesday 4 May, saying: “Just know this was years in the making”. His last solo album — KOD — was released three years ago in April 2018.

The long wait for his follow-up solo album has been attributed to the rapper putting together the Dreamville compilation album, Revenge of the Dreamers III, which was released on 5 July 2019, as well as him doing guest features.

J Cole teases album release

The 36-year-old chart-topper teased his first project since KOD by posting the artwork on social media:

J Cole album build-up…

Fans first got excited about the release of the album after fellow Dreamville Records rapper Bas hinted at the album’s arrival in a now-deleted Instagram post, stating, “pack your bags. [rocket emoji] in two weeks.”

EARTHGANG also teased the release of a new Cole album in the weeks leading up to the announcement.

In 2020, Cole released three singles, namely The Climb Back, Lion King on Ice and Snow On Tha Bluff. The rapper has not yet confirmed whether these songs will feature on his new album.

Kendrick Lamar next?

Besides J Cole, Kendrick Lamar is the other most anticipated artist to release his next album in rap music circles. Fans might have something to look forward to sooner rather than later as Complex.com hinted that Kendrick will be releasing his latest album “soon”.

Reactions to J Cole’s album drop

Fellow Dreamville artists took to social media to give their input on the upcoming album, with Bas captioning an Instagram post:

“I ain’t never lied to you. Y’all can get out my dm’s now. this is up there with bros best works to date. put my word on that too.”