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J. Cole Contemplates Retirement on New Song
J. Cole can’t leave rap alone.
On Friday, the North Carolina rapper dropped his new collaboration with BTS member J-Hope, “On the Street.” On his introspective verse, Cole once again toys with retirement, but admits that he’s conflicted about hanging up the mic.
“Some days, I wonder if I need to pick a different hobby / I’m deep in with this rappin’, it’s all a ni**a know / I never didn’t nothin’ better, it’s hard to let it go,” he raps.
He knows that the time will eventually come when he will say goodbye. “But like a father watching his daughter / Walk down the altar with tears in his eyes / You gotta let her grow / And so I shall, but first, I been honing my style.”
However, he’s not sure if the time is now. “As the moon jumps over the cow / I contemplate if I should wait to hand over the crown,” he adds. “And stick around for a bit longer, I got a strange type of hunger / The more I eat, the more it gets stronger / The more it gets stronger / I said the more it gets stronger.”
Cole has contemplated retirement before. Back in late 2020, he shared a timeline for his future projects including 2021’s The Off-Season and the unreleased It’s a Boy, culminating with what could be his final album, The Fall Off.
“Oh, bro, I’m super comfortable with the potential of being done with this shit. But I’m never going to say, Oh, this is my last album,” he previously told SLAM magazine. “Because I never know how I’m going to feel two years, three years, four years down the line, 10 years down the line, but please believe, I’m doing all this work for a reason.”
Updated J. Cole The Fall Off Era timeline
It’s a Boy next ➡️ pic.twitter.com/E6fqwmujGb
— brown 🧣⁶𓅓 (@BrownRapFan) May 8, 2022
While his rap days may be numbered, Cole continues to release new music. He and Dreamville Records executive produced the Creed III soundtrack, which contains his new song “Adonis Interlude (The Montage).”