J. Cole has released a brand new EP out of the blue, confirming rumors that he had more than just a new album on deck.
Hosted by mixtape kingpin DJ Clue, Birthday Blizzard ’26 features four fiery freestyles from the Fayeteville rapper who turned 40 years old on Wednesday (January 28).
Inspired by the rugged, no-frills energy of ’90s and ’00s New York hip-hop, the EP finds Cole flexing his razor-sharp rhymes over classic beats like Biggie‘s “Who Shot Ya?,” Diddy‘s “Victory” and The LOX‘s “Money, Power & Respect.”
Birthday Blizzard ’26 is not just a display of impressive penmanship, though; Jermaine Cole gets plenty off his chest on the brief but braggadocious project.
On the opening track “Bronx Zoo Freestyle,” the Dreamville leader addresses the backlash to his apology to Kendrick Lamar in 2024 following their brief back-and-forth on “Like That” and “7 Minute Drill.”
“I used to be top seed / The apology dropped me way out of the top three / No problem, I’m probably my best when they doubt me / Watch me,” he raps.
Cole also says: “The top ain’t really what I thought it would be / And so I jumped off and landed back at the bottom / And restarted at a level where I wasn’t regarded as much / Just to climb past ’em again and tell ’em all to keep up.”
Birthday Blizzard ’26. hosted by DJ Clue? 🥶🥶🥶4 new freestyles available now on pic.twitter.com/2N7JoHMtp6
— J. Cole (@JColeNC) January 28, 2026
“Golden Goose Freestyle,” which borrows Black Rob and The LOX’s “Can I Live” instrumental, hears the North Carolina native weighing in on some of the (alleged) shenanigans that have plagued the rap industry in recent years.
“A lot of rappers make dough then be prone to lose it / For crumbs, dumb n*ggas sold their soul to Lucian,” he spits, referencing the Universal Music Group boss Lucian Grainge. “Universal distribution but I own the music / Best n*gga still breathing, leaving no confusion.”
He also sets his sights on ghostwriting and streaming bots, rapping: “N*ggas cheating and I won’t excuse it / If I said it then I wrote it, stupid” before adding: “If the streams say you’re winning, why your tours is losing? / When the math ain’t mathing, of course you’re juicing / That means the bots is boosting, cut the tough guy image it is not conducive to breathing.”
Elsewhere, on “99 Build Freestyle,” J. Cole shows major love to his Dreamville signee and occasional collaborator JID, who is coming off a banner year thanks to his critically-acclaimed, Grammy-nominated album God Does Like Ugly.
“If hip-hop is back, JID should chart platinum / Anything less than that it means y’all capping,” he declares. (It’s worth noting that the Atlanta rapper has racked up a string of platinum and multi-platinum plaques in his career, albeit for his singles and big-name collaborations.)
Birthday Blizzard ’26 is exclusively available to purchase at J. Cole’s website, TheFallOff.com, where fans can stream and download a copy for a minumum of $1.
The quickfire project serves as a warm-up for Cole’s long-awaited final album The Fall-Off, which is set to arrive on February 6.
