On Monday evening, J. Cole announced his fifth studio album, KOD, will drop this Friday. Fittingly, it wasn’t even the biggest hip-hop story of the day since Drake, hours earlier, revealed a June release for his forthcoming album, Scorpion, while, simultaneously, Kendrick was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his album DAMN.
Drake, Kendrick, and J. Cole have been hip-hop’s big three throughout the 2010s, but there’s no denying that Cole has always been overshadowed by the Co-Kings. Although he’s never been as popular as Drake or as skilled as Kendrick, J. Cole has been a relevant player in the rap game for just as long.
After blowing up in the summer of 2009 with the release of his second mixtape, The Warm Up, J. Cole became the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. In September 2011, his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story was released, surprisingly, to mixed reviews.
Within a year, he was lapped by his peers, as Drake’s Take Care and Kendrick’s Good Kid M.A.A.D City were heralded as classics, while J. Cole had yet to release the follow up to Cole World. He would redeem himself with 2013’s Born Sinner, but by that time it was too late; from then on, Cole was pigeon-holed as the third-wheel to Drake and Kendrick’s co-Kingship.
In recent years this hasn’t mattered. J. Cole’s proudly operated in the shadows…
