J Cole: Off-Season is Over
American rapper J Cole dropped his 6th album Off-Season last week, only to shock fans and go on to completely switch lanes and make his basketball debut- also last week!
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What’s up, everyone?
36-year-old American rapper and Grammy winner Jermaine Lamarr Cole, popularly known as J Cole, dropped his 6th Studio album- “The Off Season” this week, and it went viral, with critics and fans alike claiming it to be one of his best works till date.
The crazy part? J Cole is also a professional basketball player and made his debut last night with the Rwanda Patriots: an African professional basketball team.
This is how his week went:
Released his 6th studio album “The Off Season” on Friday, 14th May 2021.
Secured 9 of the top 10 positions in Apple Music’s Global top 100 songs on Saturday, 15th May 2021
Made his debut in professional basketball on Sunday 16th May 2021.
Had the biggest streaming debut so far in 2021 with 59 Million streams on Spotify.
Talk about productive work weeks.
Cole scored his first points for the Patriots BBC on 16th May with a put-back layup in transition and started his journey as a professional basketball player. The Patriots BBC came out on top against Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers with a 60-83 score. Check out his first bucket here 👇🏻
He is reported to participate in 3 to 6 games for the Patriots in the ongoing season of the Basketball Africa League.
It is undeniable that basketball has had a huge influence on Cole’s life and he continues to name drop and reference the NBA in his songs. He took part in the 2012 All-Star NBA game and also performed the halftime show in 2019 for the All-Star game.
But how did Cole actually get involved in Basketball?
Being the star player of his high school basketball team, Cole was an easy pick for St. John’s- his College team; but before he could play a Division 1 game, Cole decided to shift his focus to music. He graduated from St.John’s with a 3.8 GPA and majored in computer science, later switching to communication and business.
However, last year American rapper and actor Master P claimed that Cole had been training for the NBA.
“When I talked to J. Cole, he was like ‘You know, big dog you did it. What do you think I would have to do to make it happen?’” Master P recalled to @TMZ at the time. “I said to get one of these NBA jerseys, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be a lot of hate, it’s gonna be a lot of people not believing in you but you know J. Cole — he got the right size, he in the gym!”
A buzz was created around the news when NBA team Detroit Pistons’ VP of marketing noticed the reports and offered Cole a tryout for the team.
This set the momentum for the rapper as he had been training to play professionally and on 13th May, 2021 his involvement with Rwanda’s Patriots BBC was made official.
His new album is doing numbers as “The Off-Season” was announced the biggest streaming debut for any album released on Spotify this year with 59 Million streams.
Undoubtedly one of the most talented artists in the industry, He now has 6 studio albums under his belt that have won him –
8 BET Hip Hop Awards
2. 3 Soul Train Awards
3. 1 Billboard Music Award
4. 1 Grammy Award
He continues his journey as a professional ballplayer and an artist. It has been refreshing to see him indulge in his passion for basketball and music without giving up on either to pursue his dreams.
They don’t call him the “GOAT” for nothing.
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