J. Cole’s New Album Is Coming Next Week. Here’s The 1st Song

Life is too short to listen to bad music. So…let Ambrosia For Heads fight through it for you and only supply you with that great stuff. Despite the reports, Hip-Hop is alive and well and, in many ways, is better than it’s ever been. Not only are we able to go back and listen to all of our favorites, at the click of a button, there is also a ton of great music still being made by artists, young and veteran alike…if you know where to look. To help with that task, we’ve created a playlist with recent music—songs that have been released within the last year or so. We update it regularly, so, if you like what you hear, subscribe to follow us on Spotify.

Moments ago (May 7), J. Cole gave listeners the presumed first look from his upcoming album, The OffSeason. The preview comes in the form of “i n t e r l u d e,” a track with some talking and a lone, potent verse. This week, the Dreamville founder posted artwork and announced the May 14 drop. He also revealed that the project was “years in the making.” Notably, the title deviates from The Fall Off, an upcoming album that Cole referenced on his chart-topping 2018 release, KOD.

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“i n t e r l u d e” addresses street violence, his plan to dominate the next several months in music, and grim circumstances in the community. Produced by Cole, T-Minus, and Tommy Parker, the track features lyrics like, “I be comin’ in peace, but f*ck me / Best beware of the others, this sh*t deep / Undercovers creep / This Southern heat make unbearable summers / Just last week, seen your mama weep / Crying ’cause she don’t wan’ bury your brother,” and “Cole World, ni**as knowin’ what it is / Just in case they don’t, I show ’em what it is / Then in summer, I do real numbers / Couldn’t dare touch it if they sold the double disc / Block hot, ni**as burnin’ up the street / Shots poppin’ and we heard it up the street / It’s a war, ni**as runnin’ up the score / Jesus said that you should turn the other cheek / Voiceless ni**as gettin’ murdered every week / Dead bodies, smell the odor in the street.” Cole also name-checks the deaths of Nipsey Hussle and UGK’s Pimp C, Hip-Hop stars who were each 33 years old at the time of their passing.

The drop marks Cole’s first music since 2020 sneak attack two-pack “The Climb Back” and “Lion King on Ice.” This release day has also yielded new music from CZARFACE and the late MF DOOM. The 10-track Super What? includes appearances by D.M.C. and Del The Funky Homosapien.

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In addition to new music from J. Cole, the official AFH playlist includes songs from Dreamville’s J.I.D., Earthgang, and Spillage Village. Other inclusions are courtesy of Phife Dawg, Conway The Machine, Armand Hammer & Alchemist, Mick Jenkins, Tiron & Ayomari, DJ Khaled, JAY-Z, Nas, Drake, Oddisee, Evidence, Khrysis, Cordae, Dom Kennedy, and plenty of others.