J. Cole to release new album, ‘The Off-Season’

The rapper referred to his new album, due out May 14, as "years in the making" in a post on Instagram.

After three years, J. Cole is back with a new album! The rap star took to social media on Tuesday to officially announce the release of his sixth studio album, The Off-Season.

Following up his critically acclaimed 2018 LP, KOD, the “No Role Modelz” rapper is coming back to drop some music on May 14, just in time for summer. Cole shared the official album art on Instagram and announced the news to his fans and followers Tuesday afternoon.

Rap star J. Cole took to social media Tuesday to officially announce the release of “The Off-Season,” his sixth studio album. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

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The captivating artwork showcases him dressed in all black, looking off into the distance as a basketball hoop and pole are engulfed in flames behind him.

Sharing the post to his 6.2 million followers, the picture already has well over 2 million likes and counting. Teasing the pending album, the rapper wrote in the caption “Just know this was years in the making.”

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The Instagram post received plenty of love in its comments from Cole’s many fans and celebrity friends. Sean Love Combs and LaKeith Stanfield both had their say, dropping fire emojis in support of the rapper’s new music. Kevin Hart also commented with a slew of emojis, and Lil Yachty shared a fire emoji.

This reportedly may the first of many albums on the way from the platinum-selling rapper. An Instagram post from December seemed to tease three albums being prepped for the future. The picture featured what seems to be Cole’s journal, with three titles written on a page: The Off-Season, It’s a Boy and The Fall Off. All of the titles were scribbled underneath the title, “The Fall Off Era.”

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As theGrio previously reported, Cole wrote a two-chapter memoir last summer entitled The Audacity in which he revealed to his fans that he is the father of two sons and reflected on his life, fame and music.

“In that time I’ve been blessed with two sons, learned the delicate art of balance between parenthood and career,” he wrote then, “had the pleasure of working with a ton of talented artists as a featured rapper, spent 10 magical days recording a Dreamville album in Atlanta, and put a lot of time and energy into sharpening my sword and growing as an artist.”

You can read both chapters of The Audacity here.

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