After an unreleased J. Cole verse was featured on an ESPN NBA Playoff commercial this weekend, it felt like a J. Cole solo effort was on the way. Yesterday, those feelings were assured as J. Cole began the rollout for his next solo album. J. Cole held a pop-up listening session at the Gramercy Theater where he played his new album, KOD, which will be released this Friday. According to Rap Radar’s Brian “B. Dot” Miller, the album’s title has three different meanings which include Kidz on Drugz, King Overdose and Kill Our Demonz. B. Dot also added that the album will include twelve tracks that were recorded over two weeks, but he didn’t mention whether or not Cole will continue with the trend of not including features on his album.
new #jcole album title: k.o.d.
three different subtitles (kidz on drugz, king overdose, kill our demonz)
recorded in two weeks.
— brian b.dot™ miller (@bdotTM) April 17, 2018
KOD is Cole’s first solo effort since December of 2016 when he released 4 Your Eyez Only. While his 2016 effort didn’t receive negative reviews, it didn’t receive many glowing remarks either. With most fans and critics giving lukewarm reviews of the album, it can be said that Cole has more to prove on this project than he has in past efforts.
cole played the entire album. about 12 songs.
experimenting with flow.
standout tracks were the intro and last song, “1985”. no word on release date. but it’s coming.
— brian b.dot™ miller (@bdotTM) April 17, 2018
There are no singles out for the project and similar to his previous two projects, Cole will go the Beyonce route of releasing an album by surprise. Speaking of surprises, Cole’s album announcement and listening session contributed to one of the surprisingly best days in Hip-Hop of recent memory. In addition to Cole releasing his album title, Kendrick Lamar received a Pulitzer Prize for DAMN. and Drake announced that his next album would be released in June.
