J. Cole has been arguably one of the most transparent and compelling storytelling MC’s in the rap game since 2011—with Kendrick Lamar and Drake being the others.
And on Monday at a private listening party in New York City, J. Cole revealed that he will be releasing his fifth studio album KOD on Friday.
KOD stands for Kids on Drugs, Kids Overdosed and Kill our Demons.
The project is a 12 track album that has a couple of features with the name kiLL Edward. His previous two projects, 4 Your Eyez Only and 2014 Forest Hills Drive didn't contain any features--the latter is notorious for going double platinum with no features.
But upon further digging, it may appear that Cole will be continuing the trend of not featuring other artists after all.
According to musical journalist Andres Tardio, Cole’s lone feature artist, kiLL Edward, could be an alter ego of himself. He pointed out that an artist by that name released a song called “Tidal Wave” and the voices are strikingly similar to Cole’s.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
The album is fairly short, but the final track "1985" is an introduction to another project that Cole didn't go into any detail about.
Cole also had another private listening party at an undisclosed location in London where no phones, cameras or bags were allowed in.
And since the news of the album, fans have been displaying their excitement in some pretty creative ways. Including a tweet by tweet musical thread following each lyric from Cole's song "January 28th" from 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
Are you excited for J. Cole’s newest album KOD? Comment below.