Cole started 2024 by building hype for the rollout of his long-awaited album, The Fall Off, which J. Cole has been teasing since his 2018 album, KOD. Fans within the hip-hop community were excited to hear what was being presented as J. Cole’s swansong, his rumored final album. 

However, this rollout and J. Cole’s year were blindsided on March 22nd by the release of Future & Metro Boomin’s album, We Don’t Trust You. Namely, due to Kendrick Lamar’s standout guest verse on the track “Like That,” where he let out some direct disses for both Drake and J. Cole. 

Despite the verse being more directed towards Drake, the latter chose to respond first on his April 5th surprise release: the Might Delete Later mixtape. On the mixtape’s final track, “7 Minute Drill,” Cole devotes his time trying to demolish Lamar’s character with lines such as: “He averagin’ one hard verse like every thirty months or somethin’. If he wasn’t dissin’, then we wouldn’t be discussin’ him.”

Cole used this line to paint a vivid picture of Kendrick Lamar as a man beyond his prime, who used his “Like That” verse to get back into public consciousness. 

Despite this scathing diss track just being released, a few days later on April 8th, the hip-hop community was shocked when, during his annual Dreamville Concert, J. Cole apologized to Kendrick Lamar and took back his diss track. In his own words at the concert, “I tried to jab [Lamar] back, and I try to keep it friendly, but at the end of the day when I listen to it, and when it comes out and I see the talk, that … don’t sit right with my spirit…”  

Reactions to this decision across the hip-hop world ranged from support for his decision to pure contempt for backing out, with various Edison staff sharing their own personal takes on it:

“He’s not a person that draws attention to himself, so with that being said, it is very surprising he is getting involved in someone else’s [Kendrick Lamar’s] issue that doesn’t really involve him,” said Mr. Malik, an IT shop teacher and fan of J. Cole’s classic works.

“So I feel like him refraining from taking part in that [the Kendrick Lamar and Drake drama] is probably for the best, and I hope that he can, in the future, maybe collaborate with at least Kendrick again…” said Mr. Ollivierre, a member of the ISS department and huge J. Cole fan.

Though as time and the drama moved onto an extremely intense one-on-one duel between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, J. Cole slowly began to dial back his presence, focusing his talents more towards features. Some notable features are:

• A surprise April 9th feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s track “Red Leather” off of their second collaborative album, We Still Don’t Trust You. The song officially signifies J. Cole’s exit from the drama, as with this track he had worked on a song for both sides of the drama.
• A September 6th feature on ASAP Rocky’s single “Ruby Rosary,” one of the tracks he released this year as part of his long-awaited return to music.
• An infamous May 24th feature on Cash Cobain’s track “Grippy,” many made fun of J. Cole’s puzzling lyrics due to the caliber of his lyricist skills. The track was memed upon and branded as an overall terrible track by the hip-hop community, which was only worsened in contrast to the backdrop of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake drama that he’d recently left. 

“That gave me kind of a bad impression of where he was headed, like musically or where he was going right now,” Jose Espinosa, an 11th grader and Kendrick Lamar fan, said about his experience listening to “Grippy.”

For the most part, this is where most people would say J. Cole’s year ended or stopped keeping up with him, as they’d view his 2024 start as promising and ending with mediocrity. Until Wednesday, October 9th, when he released the track “Port Antonio,” which addressed and reflected on the drama between Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and himself, such as seen in the following lyrics:

“I pulled the plug because I’ve seen where that was ’bout to go

They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets grow

They see this fire in my pen and think I’m dodgin’ smoke

I wouldn’t have lost a battle, dawg, I woulda lost a bro”

Cole uses these lyrics to explain his reasoning for the controversial decision to take back the diss track and leave the drama. Justifying it as preserving his friendships with Kendrick and Drake despite the hunger of the online communities to see them all go at it.

Finally, J. Cole has officially put the drama behind him with this track, fully being able to move on, and he’s now revitalized his rollout for The Fall Off. However, unlike his January rollout, he’s been looking toward his past discography instead of building hype with songs from an upcoming album.

Cole began this new era by rereleasing his first three mixtapes: The Come Up Mixtape Vol. 1, The Warm Up, and Friday Night Lights onto streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music for the first time ever. Starting with The Come Up Mixtape Vol. 1 on November 19th, releasing each subsequent mixtape five days after the previous one with The Warm Up on November 24th and Friday Night Lights on November 29th. 

The rollout of these albums then culminated in the announcement and release of a 10-year anniversary deluxe edition of his critically acclaimed album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, adding eight never-before-heard tracks to the album. This initially was available to purchase as a vinyl on December 9th and later released onto streaming services on December 20th.

Cole also held a “one-night-only” concert for 2014 Forest Hills Drive’s 10-year anniversary at Madison Square Garden, playing classics from his aforementioned mixtapes and the deluxe version of 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The concert was a major success, being completely sold out and even having a special stand in Manhattan that sold 2,014 tickets for $1 each, harkening back to something he used to do when he was a smaller artist.

Looking back on J. Cole’s year, it’s clear to see that it’s been one of his more trying years as an artist, with drama taking up a majority of his year, but it’s looking hopeful for his fans and the hip-hop community, according to these Edison staff and student predictions for J. Cole’s 2025 below:

“I feel like, in a year or so, people will probably remember the beef but will think of it as Kendrick versus Drake, and then J. Cole will be left as some kind of unanswered question…” said Jose.

“If you are a listener of J. Cole and a fan of them, then I think you know it’s perfectly in line with him and that I don’t think necessarily he’s going to or has lost too much of his core support, which is very, very, very strong,” said Mr. Burdick, an English teacher and casual J. Cole fan.