As promised, J. Cole comes through with another thank you to the fans for patiently waiting on his sophomore LP. With Truly Yours 2, we get 6 unreleased tracks from Cole with features from Young Jeezy, 2 Chainz, and Bas, with production from Cole, Canei Finch, and Jake One. This one hits much harder than the last EP, imo, get it below. Born Sinner will be out June 25th.

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With only a few days left to finish his sophomore album, Born Sinner, J. Cole decided to bless his fans with a letter to the summer. Per the norm, Cole had the internet going nuts late last night with the release of this jawn, “Cole Summer,” which in typical Cole fashion has him stripping down the fortune and fame and speaking honestly about where he is in life and getting some thoughts off his chest. But don’t get it twisted, this isn’t a preview. Cole later added on twitter that he’s dropping another EP, Yours Truly 2, tomorrow (check back for that). Born Sinner drops June 25th.

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After debuting their most recent collaboration onstage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center several days ago, Miguel and J. Cole have returned with a video for the rapper’s power track “Power Trip.” The video set and filmed in J. Cole’s hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina was shot and directed by Nabil and Mike Piscitelli with a cast comprised of the rapper’s childhood friends. J Cole handled creative direction and the concept for the video which finds the Roc Nation MC pining for Miguel’s girl a little too much. His personal anguish finally pushing him to his breaking point, he decides to do something about it. Check the video to find out what.

Spotted at MI

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While on tour supporting Alicia Keys, Miguel got the opportunity to perform at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Friday night. Midway through his set, he brought out J. Cole for the first live performance of their single “Power Trip.” The track from J. Cole’s forthcoming album Born Sinner sounded really tight with a full band. Watch the duo rock BK below and be on the lookout for new music from Miguel this summer.

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Speaking of higher education, Roc Nation poster boy J. Cole repped the rap genre in the halls of the ivy league yesterday when stepped up to the podium at Harvard University for an informal talk and discussion session titled “The Next Move: A Conversation With J. Cole.” After meeting with esteemed professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and talking about early influence ranging from Michael Jackson to his mom, Cole lost his cool on his way out, tweeting: “Harvard that was ill. Let me stop being cool, THAT SHIT WAS AMAZING. Thanks.” Watch the talk in sections

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As promised, J. Cole comes through today with his official first single, J. Cole’s “Power Trip,” off his upcoming LP, Born Sinner. “Miss America” was cool, but honestly if you’re tryna heat shit up, you really can’t go wrong with a J. Cole / Miguel collaboration right now. To me, this song is everything this song should have been – Cole back. Check out the J. Cole / Miguel collaboration on J. Cole’s “Power Trip.”

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J. Cole had been uncharacteristically quiet with the online leaks since dropping his song “Miss America” back in November. So of course, in true Cole fashion, he drops some new ish without warning in the middle of the night for his fans via his blog. Truly Yours is a 5 track EP featuring songs that didn’t make the cut for his upcoming sophomore album, Born Sinner, for various reasons – so he’s giving them to y’all, for free. Speaking of Born Sinner, we’ll be getting the official first single off of it later this week. For now, grab the EP, and check his note to the fans, below.

>>>Download

1. Can I Holla At Ya
2. Crunch Time
3. Rise Above
4. Tears For ODB
5. Stay (2009)

It’s time.

I appreciate you giving me the time I needed to grow, experiment, and find the direction for my 2nd album.. And I have.
Along the way I’ve recorded at least 4 albums worth of material, lots of it being unfinished demo versions waiting to be polished up, some of them are great songs and important stories that just won’t make the album (either they don’t fit Sonically, don’t fit Theme, or there’s just not enough space) .

Tonight, I want to give you a few of these songs because you deserve them. It’s hard as fuck for me to keep all this music from you for so long, so I know it’s been hard for you to wait. Thank you for your patience. Vibe out to these songs in their raw form, no polish.. just a lot of my soul..

The wait is over.

Truly Yours,

Born Sinner

Truly Yours

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Maybe it’s just me, but hearing Raekwon spit over a nice soul chop & piano sample is one of my favorite combinations in hip-hop, generally speaking. This time, The Chef has lent his vocals to an add-on verse for Big Sean‘s “24k of Gold” featuring J. Cole, and while the original track isn’t a complete standout from Sean’s 2012 Detroit mixtape, the efforts of the three rappers together gives producer Key Wane‘s nice track a little more depth. The full version of “24k of Gold” appears on Key Wane’s just-released So Many Keys mixtape, which you can download here. Stream the Raekwon version below.

spotted at HHNM

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One of the standout tracks from Fabolous‘ Thanksgiving day mixtape, The Soul Tape 2, would have to be his collab with J. Cole, “Louis Vuitton.” Well now it looks like Cole took the track, subtracted Fab, and added some new verses to make this solo extended version of the song. Listen to Jermaine give y’all 3 verses on his LV obsessed lover. Born Sinner is still due out January 28th.

>>>Download

Spotted at XZ

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J. Cole sounds like he wrote “Miss America”–the lead single off his sophomore album Born Sinner–before Obama won re-election. Or more accurately, before Romney lost. He sounds mad, is what I’m trying to convey here. Kicking off with a JFK sample and “PSA”-like intro Cole quickly segues into loaded clips and conflicted feelings, sounding more like a battle-scarred vet than a rookie with one album under his belt. But then again, remembering he is the same cat who made the beat for Kendrick’s “HiiiPower” maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to hear him go a little 2pacalypse now on a track like this. Whether this suits your post-election mood or not, Cole does his thing on the verses–a hopeful sign for the new LP, even if the beat is wild ominous. Born Sinner is due out January 28th, “Miss America” goes on sale as a single on iTunes tonight.

spotted at HHNM

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