The rumors are true. The J. Cole album is happening, HotNewHipHop reports. The rapper confirmed on Twitter Sunday night that he’ll release 2014 Forest Hills Drive on December 9, the same day as the first part of Lil Wayne’s upcoming Tha Carter V. The announcement comes following a leak from Amazon and iTunes earlier in the day, which revealed the title and release date. In addition to the announcement, J. Cole posted an iTunes pre-order link and released a short documentary about the concept behind the album. The album is set to include 13 tracks but no other information about the music was released, other that the project will not produce any pre-release singles.
According to Rap-Up, 2014 Forest Hills Drive is the address of J. Cole’s childhood home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which he purchased this year for $121,000. He sent out a letter to his neighbors inviting them to a listening session on November 29 and 30.“If we’ve never met, I’m Jermaine, and I recently purchased 2014 Forest Hills Drive. I grew up here with my brother and my mother, Kay”, J. Cole wrote.
In the seven-minute trailer embedded in the tweet, J. Cole goes back to his old neighborhood in Fayetteville, where he visits his alma mater, Terry Sanford High School; a local skating rink; and the split-ranch house where he spent part of his childhood. “I’ve gotten to this point in my career and realized that, yeah I got a lot more dreams and I want to go further,” he says in the documentary, “but at the same time, I don’t want it if it’s at the expense of my happiness, and I don’t want it if it’s at the expense of my sanity or if I have to become someone who’s so out of touch with what’s real.” Watch J Cole’s 2014 Forrest Hills Drive documentary below.
J. Cole’s last album, Born Sinner, was released last year and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart and sold more than 700,000 copies. The new 2014 Forest Hills Drive is his third studio album and it went for pre-order on iTunes on Sunday night