A couple of weeks ago, J. Cole announced the impending release of The Fall-Off, the album that he's been teasing for years. The LP will arrive next week, but before it comes out, Cole evidently has some things to get off his chest. Today, Cole released a new surprise EP called Birthday Blizzard '26, which he seemingly recorded at least partially during the winter storm that's had the East Coast buried under snow and ice for the past few days. Cole's actual birthday is today; he's 41. On the EP, Cole addresses the 2024 episode in which he removed himself from the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef, apologizing to Kendrick in the process.
In the off-chance that you need a recap of Cole's role in the Drake/Kendrick saga, the man named himself, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake as "the Big Three" on Drake's song "First Person Shooter," which reached #1 in 2023. A few months later, Kendrick reemerged on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That," igniting his long-simmering issues with Drake and uttering the line "fuck the Big Three." A couple of weeks after that, Cole included the oddly admiring Kendrick diss "7 Minute Drill" on his surprise mixtape Might Delete Later. A few days after its release, Cole removed "7 Minute Drill" from streaming and apologized during his set at his own Dreamville Festival, claiming that his song was "the lamest shit I ever did in my fucking life." Cole's apology was widely mocked at the time, but it seemed a lot wiser as Kendrick absolutely annihilated Drake over the next few weeks.
Cole is selling his new EP Birthday Blizzard '26 as a pay-what-you-want download on his website, and it's packaged as a '90s-style mixtape, complete with New York legend DJ Clue as its host. On the tape, Cole raps over a series of '90s Bad Boy tracks: Puff Daddy's "Victory," Black Rob's "Can I Live," Biggie Smalls' "Who Shot Ya?," and the Lox's "Money, Power & Respect." This seems like a poignant choice, considering the ongoing Sean Combs saga and Cole's relationship with it. (At a 2013 VMA after-party, Cole famously got into a physical altercation with Combs, possibly because Combs was threatening Kendrick Lamar. Cole rapped about it on his 2021 album The Off-Season.)
On Birthday Blizzard '26 opener "Bronx Zoo Freestyle," Cole talks about how he's no longer part of the Big Three conversation and how he's using that as fuel: "Apology dropped me way out of the top three/ No poblem, I'm probably my best when they doubt me." He also says, "The top ain't really what I thought it would be/ And so I jumped off and landed back at the bottom/ And restarted at a level where I wasn't regarded as much/ Just to climb past them again and tell 'em all to keep up."
Throughout the EP, Cole discusses his distaste for the music business and the gossip that surrounds it: "The beef ain't real, so it ain't no reason to squash it/ The game ain't neither, so it's easy for me to pause it." He also presents himself as a humble alternative to that ongoing conversation: "I stay in my lane, despite every bit of dirt thrown my way/ There’ll never be a stain on my name, it’s why I walk around/ Doley as if ain’t nothin' changed without a chain on my frame."
On closing track "99 Build Freestyle," Cole has an extended riff about rap beef as a distraction from excellence:
I loaded the whole cartridge on foes who wholeheartedly oppose the chosen one
That rose like the golden sun in the mornin', to give light to even those that shun
Rays from the flows radiate the globe, meltin' snow on this frozen tundra
Known as the rap game, that's been overcome with loads of marketin' plans
Based on randomly dissin' and hatin' on the next man
I understand, imagine workin' hard as you can
On this album you planned, hopin' it charges yo' brand
But as soon as you drop it, the world's ignorin' again
Got you wonderin' why, 'til you start to notice the trend
Drama enhances the attention brought to the fans
On popular channels, so you wanna hop on the bandwagon of battle rappin' and throwin' shots in a jam
I had my chance, but I dropped it, which means my only option
To do the opposite then: Lead with the skill, n***a
The Birthday Blizzard '26 EP isn't on streaming services, presumably because of the samples, but you can get it for one dollar here (or just, you know, find one of the many YouTube rips out there).
