Throughout this past week, there were some hip-hop media personalities who were hinting at a J. Cole surprise drop. Rory & Mal and the Joe Budden Podcast were just a couple of shows beating on his drum.
Although they never explicitly said Cole was dropping, it was heavily implied. Or maybe fans were just hearing what they wanted to hear. Whatever the case may be, there were fans staying up until midnight last night on the off chance that Cole may actually come through with a new album.
In the end, this exercise proved to be a waste of time. There were no surprise releases. Everything that was supposed to be released was released, and everything that wasn't supposed to drop, didn't.
J. Cole Didn't Drop
Needless to say, this caused quite a stir on social media. Whether or not it should have is up for interpretation. At the end of the day, Cole himself never made any announcements or commitments. With that in mind, it feels a bit silly that this conversation was being had to begin with.
The fans control the narrative, and on social media, there were certainly those who were unhappy with what they were seeing. In the same breath, there were others ready to simply say "I told you so" and move on with their lives.
Internet Reacts
Below, you can find a wide range of reactions to the news. For the most part, fans blame people like Mal and Ice from the Joe Budden Podcast for pushing a pipe dream. Others simply knew what type of time it was from the very beginning.
Interestingly enough, Drake spoke out last night with some cryptic Instagram posts. These suggest that ICEMAN is on the way and could very well be an imminent release. However, fans should probably refrain from getting their hopes up on that one.
It seems like disappointment was the word of the night on Friday, and further disappointment would just break our collective spirit.
