J. Cole Surprise Releases New EP

As he prepares to release new album The Fall-Off next week, J. Cole has surprise released a new EP to celebrate his 41st birthday. Hosted by DJ Clue—the rap mixtape pioneer and Power 105.1 radio DJ—Birthday Blizzard ’26 is for sale on a pay-what-you-want basis, as long as you want to pay at least $1. Find that here before the album arrives on February 6.

Among the five tracks are a freestyle over Stevie J’s instrumental to Diddy’s “Victory” (complete with the Notorious B.I.G.’s original ad libs) and, on “Bronx Zoo Freestyle,” what appears to be a further winding down of Cole’s feud with Kendrick Lamar. After inadvertently sparking the Kendrick-Drake beef back in 2023—when he stood himself alongside them in mainstream rap’s “the big three”—Cole famously went after Lamar on “7 Minute Drill” and publicly chastised himself three days later, telling a Dreamville Festival crowd the “goofy” song was “the lamest shit I ever did in my fucking life.” Cole later tried to mediate between the two rappers on “Port Antonio,” and “Bronx Zoo Freestyle” picks up where that left off. “I used to be top seed/The apology dropped me way out of the top 3/No problem, I’m probably best when they doubt me,” he raps.

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