J. Cole dropped a surprise package of four freestyles in the aptly named project, Birthday Blizzard ’26, which arrived hours before the rapper turned 41. The mixtape is available on Cole’s website for just $1, although there’s an option to pay any amount.
The compilation kicks off with “Bronx Zoo Freestyle,” a track spanning just over three minutes and that sees the rapper addressing his apology heard-’round-hip-hop to Kendrick Lamar and his decision to step back from Drake and Lamar‘s ruthless rap feud.
“The top ain’t really what I thought it would be/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 them again and tell them all to keep up,” Cole delivers on the freestyle before declaring, “I used to be top, see, the apology dropped me way out of the top 3/No problem, I’m probably my best when they doubt me.”
His line on the new track addresses his ill-received record “7 Minute Drill,” which aimed at Lamar (essentially calling some of his music boring) for dissing him and Drake (mainly Drake) on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” and Cole’s public apology afterwards. During his Dreamville Festival in North Carolina in April 2024, Cole expressed his regret on stage for giving into the pressure of rap beef and admitted, “That’s the lamest shit I ever did in my fucking life.”
“I moved in a way that I spiritually feel bad on,” he told the festival crowd. “I tried to like, jab my nigga back and I tried to keep it friendly. But at the end of the day, when I listen to it and when it comes out and I see the talk, that shit don’t sit right with my spirit. That shit disrupts my fucking peace.”
Earlier this month, Cole announced his seventh studio album, The Fall-Off, out Feb. 6. In a contemplative trailer announcing the news, the artist is seen washing his truck and eating solo at a restaurant. “Everything is supposed to go away eventually,” an unnamed voice says. “You see this especially in like show business with famous actors, or like musicians, and it’s like, ‘Oh, this guy used to be famous and then he fell off. What happened?’ And they want to point to, they did this and this and they made some sort of mistake —instead of thinking that look, it’s kind of crazy they got famous in the first place.”
J. Cole’s Birthday Blizzard ’26 Track List
1. “Bronx Zoo Freestyle”
2. “Golden Goose Freestyle”
3. “Winter Storm Freestyle”
4. “99 Build Freestyle”
5. “Birthday Blizzard ’26” (Full Playthrough)
Emma Riot 
