As J. Cole jumps into a full year without a released album, the anticipation is coming to a boil. During Black Friday of 2015, Kendrick Lamar and Cole released a duo of singles rapping over instrumentals from one another’s hit songs “A Tale Of 2 Citiez” and “Alright.” Both the songs were huge hits and topped the charts in rankings on Soundcloud’s HipHop boards. Although, for long term fans of Cole, a certain line uplifted the spirits of listeners.

“Next February, bet…get scary when I…around and drop..” Then a white noise filled the eager ears of listeners wanting to know the title of Cole’s next album.

When we analyze the way Cole views music through many interviews and his HBO special looking into the interworking of his “Dreamville” music marketing team, fans notice not only his passion for art but his hatred for the industry. This makes him much like Kendrick Lamar as they both hate writing without inspiration.

In this generation, music industry labels often pressure artist to release music, which is not the most creative environment for music especially such an emotion-driven art such as rap. We commend J. Cole for sticking to his roots and not giving into the money, fame or fortune that has been thrown his way. With little information on when his album will be released or even what it will be called, we sit and wait in patience, or lack thereof, for February’s release. It’s a Cole world.