<\/p>\n
The project features five tracks, and follows the release of Cole\u2019s most recent song, \u2018Disc 2 Track 2\u2019<\/p>\n
J. Cole<\/a> has released five new tracks as part of a project called Birthday Blizzard \u201826<\/em>, ahead of the release of his seventh, and possibly final, album, The Fall-Off<\/em>.<\/p>\n Birthday Blizzard \u201826<\/em> was released on thefalloff.com<\/a>, and is available to download with \u201cpay what you want\u201d pricing (the minimum price is $1).<\/p>\n The release follows Cole\u2019s recent song \u2018Disc 2 Track 2\u2019, posted to YouTube with a music video directed by Ryan Doubiago<\/a>. The song itself covers Cole\u2019s life \u201cin reverse<\/em>\u201d, starting with Cole saying \u201cI first appeared in a hearse<\/em>\u201d, and ending with Cole\u2019s mother handing him back to the doctor as a baby, in a style that has been compared to Nas<\/a>\u2019 \u2018Rewind\u2019.<\/p>\n The video, however, opens with a statement about Cole\u2019s upcoming release.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the past 10 years, this album has been hand crafted with one intention: a personal challenge to myself to create my best work,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cTo do on my last what I was unable to do on my first. I had no way of knowing how much time, focus and energy it would eventually take to achieve this, but despite the countless challenges along the way, I knew in my heart I would one day get to the finish line. I owed it first and foremost to myself. And secondly, I owed it to hip-hop.\u201d<\/p>\n Cole\u2019s most recent studio album, The Off-Season<\/em>, came out in May of 2021, making it nearly five years since the artist last released an album (not counting his 2024 album Might Delete Later<\/em>, his foray into that year\u2019s Kendrick-Drake feud<\/a>, which he subsequently apologised for<\/a>, saying it \u201cdidn\u2019t sit right with [his] spirit.\u201d).<\/p>\n The Fall-Off<\/em> has been in the works for nearly a decade, according to a 2021 SLAM<\/em> magazine interview, and caps off what a 2020 post of Cole\u2019s notepad called \u201cThe Fall-Off Era\u201d.<\/p>\n The \u2018Disc 2 Track 2\u2019 video ends with one line against an all-black screen: \u201cThe Fall-Off<\/em> is inevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n Birthday Blizzard \u201826<\/em> is available now on thefalloff.com<\/a>, where Cole\u2019s album The Fall-Off<\/em>, set to release February 6, is also available for preorder.<\/p>\n Watch the video for \u2018Disc 2 Track 2\u2019 now:<\/p>\n