J. Cole

J. Cole Has Reportedly Completed His Basketball Contract And Will Return To The US

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J. Cole — who got to live his dream of professionally playing basketball, if only for a little while — has reportedly completed the terms of his contract with the BAL’s Rwanda Patriots, according to ESPN’s Marc Spears, who reported the news on Twitter. “Source confirms rapper J. Cole of the Rwanda Patriots BBC has completed his contractual obligation to the Basketball Africa League and has departed from Rwanda due to a ‘family obligation,’” he wrote. “J. Cole had five points, three assists, and five rebounds in three games.”

It was Spears who initially announced the surprise signing ahead of the release of Cole’s new album The Off-Season, revealing that the rapper had agreed to a contract for three-to-six games in the newly formed international league. Cole’s manager and business partner Ib Hamad later noted that the timing was purely coincidental due to both the album release and the start of the Basketball Africa League being pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cole’s contract was likely scheduled to last at least the duration of the group stage play, with the additional three games taking place during the tournament contingent on his performance.

Not everyone appreciated having the rap star around, however. Terrell Stoglin, the leading scorer for Morocco’s AS Salé, called Cole’s opportunity “disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this” and felt “he took someone’s job that deserves it.” Although Rick Ross came to Cole’s defense, it appears to be a moot point now; Cole’s basketball career is, for the moment, over.

J. Cole Gives His Rwanda Patriots Teammates New Sneakers

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While some Basketball Africa League players have expressed their discontent with J. Cole’s position in the newly formed league, Cole’s teammates on the Rwanda Patriots have a new reason to enjoy having him around. In a video shared to TikTok by basketball trainer Omar Khanani and reposted on TheShadeRoom, Cole gives his teammates boxes of new sneakers — presumably, his Puma RS-Dreamers — which they appreciatively try on.

The announcement that J. Cole would be playing professional hoops abroad sparked waves of excitement among his fans and brought plenty of eyes to the nascent league, a joint venture between the NBA and FIBA. However, Cole’s less-than-stellar debut — he scored three points in his first outing and just two in his most recent — prompted Morocco’s AS Sale star Terrell Stoglin, the team’s leading scorer and one of the top scorers in the league, to posit that Cole being there was “taking someone’s job.”

This is a pretty common sentiment among basketball players toward hoopers who underperform, so it’s not surprising to hear. However, Stoglin’s comments drew criticism from rapper Rick Ross, who admonished him in an Instagram video. “You should be there to support the brother,” he said. “If he made one point on the first game, by the time he get to the 10th, you should make sure he makin’ six a game.”

Check out the video of Cole supplying his teammates with new shoes above.

Basketball Star Tries To Ether J. Cole’s Hoop Dreams

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J. Cole Responds To Noname

Hip-hop superstar J. Cole has single-handedly brought more exposure and attention to the Basketball Africa League than anyone else in the league’s inaugural season. The Grammy-winning artist is pulling double duty with his music and playing ball for the Rwanda Patriots, but not everyone in the BAL is hyped about the famous hitmaker. J. Cole […]

The post Basketball Star Tries To Ether J. Cole’s Hoop Dreams appeared first on SOHH.com.

Rick Ross Responds To The BAL Player That Called J. Cole’s Roster Spot ‘Disrespectful To The Game’

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Shortly after the release of his latest album, The Off-Season, J. Cole played his first game in the Basketball Africa League. The Dreamville rapper had signed with the Rwanda Patriots to play six matches with the team. Three games have already gone by and while it may be exciting for some to watch Cole play professional basketball, his stats haven’t been great. The rapper has only scored five points in those three games, a performance that caused one BAL player to criticize his roster spot.

“For a guy who has so much money and has another career to just come here and average, like, one point a game and still get glorified is very disrespectful to the game,” Terrell Stoglin, a guard for AS Salé, said. Some people agreed with Stoglin, while others, like Rick Ross, did not. In fact, Ross took to his Instagram Story to respond to Stoglin’s statement.

“In no way is this meant to be disrespectful, but first and foremost, should no Black man’s dreams be censored nor limited,” Ross said. “Comin’ from a brother, I think you would understand what building these types of relationships would do for the business. For the eyes on the industry, you know what I’m sayin’?” He added, “You should be there to support the brother. If he made one point on the first game, by the time he get to the 10th, you should make sure he makin’ six a game, you understand?”

You can listen to Ross’ reply in the video above.

One BAL Player Thinks J. Cole Being On A Roster Is ‘Disrespectful To The Game’

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J. Cole’s professional basketball career has been, for lack of a better term, pretty modest. As a player for Patriots Basketball Club in the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League, Cole has scored five points in three games. He’s looked like, well, a person playing professional basketball for the first time, although he does certainly have some skill on the court.

The biggest thing Cole’s done is bring attention to the league, although for one player, that trade-off is not worth it. Terrell Stoglin, a guard for AS Salé who averages 31 points per game, certainly sees the benefit of “a lot of attention, and, I guess, money” coming in because of Cole, but generally thinks he is disrespecting the game.

Via ESPN:

“I think there’s a negative and a positive [to J. Cole’s presence],” Stoglin told ESPN. “The negative part of it is: I think he took someone’s job that deserves it.

“I live in a basketball world. I don’t live in a fan world. I know a lot of guys that had their careers stopped by COVID and they’re still home working out and training for an opportunity like this.

“For a guy who has so much money and has another career to just come here and average, like, one point a game and still get glorified is very disrespectful to the game. It’s disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this.”

Patriots chief operating officer Haydee Ndayishimiye unsurprisingly disagrees with this assessment — “We made a basketball decision which can be justified by our performance so far,” she said — but it is fair to point out that someone who has put their life towards playing ball professionally lost out on an opportunity to someone who recently started pursuing a basketball career. Still, the only rule is it has to work, and the brain trust with Patriots seem to be happy with Cole’s performance on the floor.

J. Cole Tours New York City In His Gritty ‘Applying Pressure’ Video

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For some fans, J. Cole is as much a Queens rapper as he is one from the South. His journey to rap stardom more or less started in New York, where he attended St. John’s University and met his collaborators and Dreamville co-founders Bas and Ibrahim Hamad. In the video for “Applying Pressure,” Cole revisits some of the most meaningful locales around the city for him in a gritty, nighttime shoot reminiscent of the ’90s rap aesthetic that informs much of his work. Dave East, who Cole name-checks in the song’s lyrics, also makes a cameo appearance.

“Applying Pressure” was also the title for the documentary Cole released as part of the rollout for his new album The Off-Season. In it, he explains the process behind the creation of the album, which was inspired and influenced by the drills he would run while training for basketball. Both sets of drills paid off for him; not only did The Off-Season reach No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart as many of his previous works had done, but all of the songs from the album also landed in the top 40 of the Hot 100, including the four most-streamed songs landing in the top 10. Meanwhile, his basketball workouts got him a spot on the roster of the Basketball Africa League’s Rwanda team.

Watch the “Applying Pressure” video above and stream The Off-Season here.

All 12 Of J. Cole’s ‘The Off-Season’ Songs Are In ‘Billboard’s Hot 100 Top 40

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We already knew that J. Cole’s new album The Off-Season was going to dominate the Billboard charts but now that the charts have been published today, we can get a sense of just how dominant his latest effort really is. Yesterday, Billboard tweeted its usual snippets of information, telling us that The Off-Season was No.1 on the albums chart and that Cole had four songs in the top ten of the Hot 100 and in the top five of the most-streamed songs charts.

Today, with the charts released in full, we’ve learned that all 12 songs from J. Cole’s album have charted in the Hot 100 Top 40, an accomplishment that makes him the first since Juice WRLD’s posthumous album Legends Never Die also landed 12 songs in the Top 40 the week of its release. While it was previously reported that “My Life,” “Amari,” “Pride Is The Devil,” and “95 South” had debuted in the top 10 (at No. 2, 5, 7, and 8, respectively), we now know where the remaining tracks from the album fall: “Applying Pressure” is No.13, “100 Mil” is No.14, “Interlude” (which previously debuted at No.8) is No.17, “Let Go My Hand” is No.19, “Punchin’ The Clock” is No.20, “The Climb Back” returned to the chart with a new peak at No. 25, “Hunger On The Hillside” is No.28, and “Close” is No.33.

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.