Ibrahim ‘Ib’ Hamad

Is J. Cole’s ‘The Fall Off’ Coming Soon? The Rapper Teased A New Song Using A Burner Account

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j. cole
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The long wait for J. Cole’s seventh studio album, The Fall Off, may be coming to an end. Cole, who is currently on tour with Drake, shared a snippet of a new song, along with a short tour vlog using a burner account on Instagram. The video tracks his and Drake’s tour from behind the scenes, capturing Cole in the studio and featuring appearances from the tour’s new opener Lil Durk. You can check it out below or, if you just want to skip to the song, there’s another embed under that.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3n-XnLrmjm/

The song itself is a stripped-down, no-holds-barred rhyme barrage over an eerie, ominous piano loop with cyberpunk-ish synths slowly building to a furious breakdown. Drake, Cole’s tourmate, is clearly an influence, with paranoid but triumphant lyrics in the vein of the Canadian rapper’s latest releases. And lest fans question the veracity of the Instagram burner, its authenticity was confirmed by no less an authority than Cole’s longtime business partner Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad, who told followers on Twitter to “tap in.”

Earlier this year, Cole insinuated that The Fall Off might very well be finished, telling fans at one of his and Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour stops, “Right now, I’m at the tale end of working on this album. This album that I’ve been working on for a long time. It’s called The Fall Off.” And although Cole joked “I don’t know how many people know about it,” he’s been teasing the project since shortly after the release of his fifth album, KOD. Perhaps this teaser is just the beginning of a rollout fans have been waiting for since before the pandemic.

JID Shares ‘2007’ Featuring His Father, J. Cole, And Dreamville’s President Ibrahim Hamad

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JID is officially in album mode with the recent single “Dance Now” featuring Kenny Mason out now and the announcement that The Forever Story is looming. A sad reality for many album cycles comes in the form of difficulties clearing samples, which often hinders the inclusion of certain records entirely or the way the artist would like them to. Today (August 18), in lieu of sample issues on his upcoming album, JID shared “2007,” which was meant to be his album outro, featuring his father, labelmate J. Cole, and Dreamville President Ibrahim Hamad.

The Atlanta rapper primed listeners for the moment by requesting they turn on his post notifications for 8:00 P.M. EST. He then shared multiple promotional videos followed by the official link to “2007.” This is a special release for many reasons, namely the fact his father has a snippet on the song the very same day they are celebrating his birthday.

Additionally, Ib and Cole both speak about discovering JID and how he has evolved over the years. And, of course, JID has yet another impressive display of lyricism and storytelling. The wait for The Forever Story appears it may be more than worth it after this drop.

Check out “2007” above.

J. Cole’s Manager Elaborates On The Diddy Fight: ‘It’s Not What People Say’

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One of the biggest storylines to emerge with the release of J. Cole’s highly anticipated sixth studio album The Off-Season was the North Carolina rapper’s admission that his last fight was with Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2013. Until he confirmed it on “Let Go My Hand,” the fight was one of rap’s most mysterious rumors, growing out of murky reports of a heated exchange between Cole, Diddy, and Kendrick Lamar during an MTV VMA party in 2013. Cole’s manager and co-founder of Dreamville, Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad, further elaborated on the scuffle during a recent appearance on the Say Less podcast with Hennypalooza founders Kazeem “Kaz” Famuyide and Nile “Lowkey” Ivey.

“I just remember hearing about it and laughing,” Ib says of the speculative reporting surrounding the event that emerged in its aftermath. “‘Cause I was there. I’m not gonna go into detail, but it’s definitely not what people are saying.” While the widely circulated rumor has it that a piqued Puff tried to throw a drink on Kendrick Lamar in the wake of his saber-rattling “Control” verse (in which he declares himself “King of New York” despite originally hailing from California — a lyrical homage to hometown favorite Kurupt) and Cole intervened, Ib insists things happened differently.

“It was definitely not like he was defending Kendrick or something,” he claims. “It wasn’t like, ‘Don’t talk to Kendrick like that!’ Kendrick was there, Top was there, Jay was there, Beyoncé was there. Me and Cole. Grown men got a little heated. All I remember is, me and Jay looking at each other like, ‘Oh, these n****s ‘bout to fight.’ And then just being like, ‘Oh no, this is ‘bout to happen.’ I’ll leave it at that.” He also made sure to clarify that everyone talked it out later and settled matters relatively quickly.

If nothing else, it provided good content: J. Cole was able to incorporate the story — sans details, naturally — on his album. Cole verse on “Let Go My Hand” recalls, “My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would’ve thought it? / I bought that n**** album in seventh grade and played it so much / You would’ve thought my favorite rapper was Puff.”

You can check out the story at around 12:00 in the video above.

J. Cole Is Apparently Now A ‘Call Of Duty’ Fan Thanks To Young Thug And Gunna

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This past Wednesday, Call Of Duty shared a new trailer for Warzone 3, their free-to-play battle royale game. Its first two seasons thrived during the 2020 pandemic as it grew to be massively popular among gamers, and excitement for the new season only escalated with the new trailer.

The promo video featured a number of musicians, athletes, and entertainment names like Young Thug who blows up a building after hopping on a helicopter piloted by Gunna. There’s also Jack Harlow and comedian Druski parachuting from the sky and that’s just half of it. Saweetie, Swae Lee, Dennis Schröder, Jack Grealish, Mookie Betts, and others star in the trailer. It turns out that the thrilling video had a big influence on J. Cole, who is now a big fan of the game.

Screenshot From HipHpDX

The rapper’s manager and Dreamville record label co-founder, Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad shared a text message thread between himself and J. Cole detailing his first foray into the game.

“Yo I’m bout to hit this call of duty for the first time… With Tminus and mez” the rapper says, adding, “What’s goooood.” Ib laughs at Cole’s message and the rapper replies, “Thug and Gunna inspired me.” Ib can’t help but laugh at Cole’s excitement with Call Of Duty: Warzone 3. “You really hyped off that commercial,” Ib says. “I’m dying (laughing emojis).”

You can check out the screenshot of the messages between Cole and Ib above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.