With the exciting news of a new album from Kendrick Lamar, untitled unmastered, that happened while most of us were fast asleep, music fans are naturally wondering when Lamar's collaboration album with J. Cole would see the light of day. After all, the duo were reportedly working on a joint effort, which was hinted at as far back as 2011(!!), but so far, all we've gotten is crickets. The two put out quite the tease when they released two songs, both titled "Black Friday," which were aptly released on Black Friday last year... but so far, that's it.
It's reported that though they've recorded enough songs to put out a mixtape, there's one thing delaying the process: a possible summer tour for J. Cole with Drake, according to media executive and radio producer Ebro Darden. When speaking with HOT 97 last month, Darden simply said, "There’s a rumor that I heard that there’s gonna be an announcement this week of a Drake and J. Cole summer tour." It seems that the tour, paired with possible production changes on Cole's end, could be preventing this album from dropping.
Further sparking hope in fans is a statement from the president of Top Dawg Entertainment (Lamar's label), Dave Free. Back in January, Free told MTV News,
Anything’s a possibility. Everything’s a possibility, but I’ma say this, too: Kendrick and Cole are in a place in their careers and in their lives where they have to keep going. Of course they’re two of the biggest rappers out, but they still have to keep grinding. There’s so much work that they have to continue to do. A joint album does sound great, but people need to understand, these are two geniuses. These are two creative guys. It takes a long time for one of them to get in a space to create a song, so to get two of them in a space to do that, it takes a lot of time and energy. It all has to be a singular project, but it just can’t happen overnight.
Though it seems unlikely this Lamar/Cole collab will arrive anytime soon, that doesn't stop fans from clamoring for it, taking to Twitter to express their feelings on the matter:
For now, unfortunately, it seems like the question will remain unanswered.
