Don’t hold your breath for that rumored J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar album. Terrence “Punch” Henderson said the collaboration isn’t likely to drop. Ever.
On Friday night, a Twitter user asked the TDE co-president about the highly anticipated project’s expected release date. Unfortunately, Punch shattered many fans’ hopes with a two-word response: “probably never.”
Rumors of a K. Dot and Cole collaborative project have been circulating for years. They drew excitement again when they remixed each other's songs: Cole took "Alright," and Kendrick took "A Tale of Two Citiez" for Black Friday in November 2015. Nearly a full year later, during a December 2016 interview on The Breakfast Club, TDE artist Ab-Soul confirmed the album was in fact real, but he refused to go into detail.
“I can’t speak on that. I wish I could,” Soul said before revealing he submitted a verse for the project. “I’m saying these guys move like the Mob. You never know with these guys. I just hope they use my verse. They just need to use my verse.”
Charlamagne The God asked for further confirmation: “But there is a Kendrick-Cole album?”
“They got it. They got something in the works,” Soul responded. “They’ve been working on that motherfucker for a while.”
Shortly after the interview, The Faderreached out to Soul for more information about the album. The 30-year-old, however, neither confirmed nor denied the project’s existence, simply writing: “It's a myth" *joker smile*."
So is the Kendrick-Cole project sitting in a vault? Was it ever completed? Did they even begin recording? As of now, it all remains a big ol' mystery. And judging by Punch's recent tweet, it'll probably stay that way.