KILL EDWARD’s COMEBACK
J. Cole’s Alter Ego is Making His Return
The living rap legend J. Cole’s last album dropped more than two years ago, in April 2018. When KOD came out, it raised a question: who is kiLL edward?
Cole’s fourth album had twelve tracks, two of which featured the unknown kiLL edward. It turned out this was a new moniker for Cole himself. Just a week after the release of KOD, Cole announced that a full kiLL edward album was in the works.
Last year, Cole took off touring to finish projects, including the kiLL edward music, but there’s no album yet. But after a long wait, we might finally be getting a listen to new music.
In early October and for the first time in two years, Cole revived the kiLL edward official Instagram account. Cole posted two stories, one of which promises to “end 2020 with something special.”
We still have no idea what a kiLL edward album will sound like, and how it will compare to the rest of Cole’s discography. However, both KOD tracks that list kiLL edward as a featured artist are slow, deep grooves with a serious tone.
In a 2018 interview, Cole explained the alter ego comes from a desire to experiment with his sound and storytelling.
“…I started experimenting with the music,” he said. “The production, my voice, and I started doing these songs in this ‘kiLL edward’ style. I didn’t have a name, I just had these songs.”
Cole was more personal in that same interview. He described that he hoped the moniker would be a cathartic way to express and let go of a darker side of himself.
“When I say ‘kiLL edward’, it’s the stuff I feel like I inherited from him,” Cole said. “There’s some shit in me I don’t like and that’s the shit I wanna kill off.”
So, while we don’t have a release date or more details on the upcoming kiLL edward project, we know we’ll be hearing a different side of Cole then we ever have.
