Following the release of J. Cole’s acclaimed new album, The Off-Season, the rapper has shared the video for ‘a m a r i’.
The new album is the first release from Cole since 2018, a time when he shared his fifth album KOD. The new number, ‘a m a r i’, is one of the stand-out tracks from Cole’s latest effort, which lived up to the immense speculation that surrounded the record.
The video for ‘a m a r i’ has been directed by Mez for Heirs. It opens with a shot of a helicopter labelled ‘Dreamville’, which is the name of Cole’s record company. The next two-and-a-half minutes of the video sees the North Carolina rapper relive his years as a student at St. John’s University and dressed dapperly in a mafioso style suit. The video then closes with the effervescent line, “hold on to your inner child”.
The latest album from the rapper has been one he’s been teasing since 2018 and first mentioned it in the YouTube caption for ‘Album Of The Year (Freestyle)’, which read: “The Off-Season coming soon… All roads lead to The Fall Off.”
Hip-Hop Hero’s review of The Off-Season said: “There isn’t much to dislike about the record. In fact, the only thing I can pick out that turns me off the LP is that it is too short, but, in truth, even that would be harsh criticism. The reality is that the album is 12 rounds of potent and pure unbridled artistry.
“Like watching Muhammad Ali dance his way across the ring, guiding himself around the vicious world in front of him, delivering bloody noses and fat lips at will and never truly settling in one place except greatness.”
