Six years ago today, J. Cole released his third album 2014 Forest Hill Drive. While the rapper is currently at work on his upcoming sixth album, The Fall Off, he opted to honor the anniversary with a video for his new song “Fire Squad,” The video finds Cole in a deserted area, discussing his rise to fame and claiming he’s one of the best rappers in hip-hop.
A bunch of @JColeNC videos got deleted way back and today were getting them all back up. And because it’s the anniversary #FHD heres the world premiere of the never before released video for ‘Fire Squad’ 🔥🔥🔥 Happy Holidays! https://t.co/103ttJ79Hh pic.twitter.com/MDJgOwjZH2
— Dreamville (@Dreamville) December 9, 2020
The video arrives after people were left disappointed after rumors that Cole’s sixth album would arrive on December 9 proved to be false. Had it arrived as planned, it would have been Cole’s third album to arrive on that day. The rumor about Cole’s sixth album’s December 9 release began after Zane Lowe announced on his Apple Music show that a big artist would release their album on that day. People believed Cole was that mystery act, but they quickly discovered they were wrong.
This is not the first time this year that fans believed they would receive an album from J. Cole. Back in July, EarthGang’s Olu said that he was preparing to release his sixth album in the near future, but the pandemic caused him to delay it. Days later, Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad refuted the claim, saying simply, “There is no Cole album coming out soon.”
You can watch the “Fire Squad” video above.