Famed rap/hip-hop artist, Jermaine Cole, announced the release of his new album titled “KOD” last Monday via Twitter. Jermaine Cole, better known as J. Cole, last released an album December of 2016, and had not shown any sign of a new potential album until the tweet was posted. With each of his last four albums earning certified platinum ranking,and his 2014 album “2014 Forest Hills Drive” earning a double-platinum ranking and grammy nomination for rap Album of the Year, the new release set high expectations for fans and critics.

“I started liking him after listening to 2014 ‘Forest Hills Drive,’” sophomore Josh Freeman said. “After I highly anticipated his following album ‘4 Your Eyez Only,’ after two years of delay, I was semi-disappointed at first until I listened further and found a deeper meaning of the masterpiece.”

Junior Shawn Humphrey said he’s looking forward to listening to the new album.

“I think J. Cole is one of the top five rappers in the game, so when he announced that he was dropping an album this week, I was very excited,” Humphrey said. “I’m interested to see what he’ll do with this project because I felt that “4 Your Eyez Only” wasn’t his best effort. It lacked some of the witty lyricism that we’ve come to expect from J. Cole. Hopefully, we see a return to what we’ve grown accustomed to with “KOD”.

Freshman James Green and sophomore Grace Novak are also anticipating the new album.

“I am pretty excited about the album dropping. He’s done well with his other projects so I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us,” Green said.

“I think it will be cool, as I always like to listen to new albums that everyone is looking forward to. I’m excited to listen to it,” Novak said.

The upcoming album contains 12 tracks and includes the artist kiLL edward on two of the songs. This little-known artist released his first song Wednesday, two days before the album will be released. J. Cole hasn’t had another artist featured on one of his album’s since his 2013 album, “Born Sinner”, which featured Grammy winning rap artist, 50 Cent, and newly awarded Pulitzer Prize winner, Kendrick Lamar. With “kiLL edward” sounding very much like J. Cole in the recently released debut track titled “Tidal Wave,” fans are speculating the true identity of this new artist. 

By Robby Benezra