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Ari Lennox In Concert - New York, NY

Source: Cassidy Sparrow / Getty

J. Cole, at just 36 years of age, might be nearing the time to leave his career as a recording artist, but he’s still got plenty left in the clip as evidenced by the release of his latest set. The North Carolina MC and producer dropped The Off-Season on Friday (May 14) as promised, and fans on Twitter are saying Young Moe Dee never lost it.

After teasing the quick track “interlude” last week, the Fayetteville native gave the fans 12 tracks and he broke with the normal tradition of carrying the project all by his lonesome and invited some folks to the party.  The album’s opening track “95.south” features Dipset’s Cam’Ron introducing the song and peppering the song with some of his words while praising the talents of Cole. The production from Maneesh, Colemxn, and Boi-1da was strong as well.

On the following track “amari,” J. Cole joins his production talents with T-Minus and Timbaland for a double-timed,  sing-songy flow with ear-pleasing results. On “my.life,” past collaborator 21 Savage and fellow Fayetteville soldier Morray join Cole over a track from WU10, Jake One, and J. Cole. The chemistry is still strong between 21 and Cole as it was on the smash hit “A Lot” and Morray proves why he’s one of the rising new artists of his generation.

One song that’s gotten quite a bit of attention from The Off-Season is “let.go.my.hand” and a lyric that confirmed a 2013 incident between Cole’s crew and Sean “Diddy” Combs, with the New York mogul allegedly attempting to pour a drink on Kendrick Lamar over his blistering “Control” verse from Big Sean’s track that had the world on notice.

As it stands, Twitter seems to be enjoying the album as a whole but given that J. Cole has a decent amount of haters ready to detract, there are some negative reactions as well. Instead, we’ve got all the positive chatter from the social media network listed out below.

Be sure to check out J. Cole’s The Off-Season and determine your own opinion.

Photo: Getty

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