J. Cole is in a season of reminiscing. On Friday (Nov. 29), he announced that 2014 Forest Hills Drive will be getting updated with “never before heard bonus tracks from that era” as a part of its 10th anniversary.
Interscope Records, with which the North Carolina lyricist’s Dreamville imprint was formed in a joint venture, launched pre-orders for the LP’s alternative cover vinyl, set to ship out on Dec. 6. Only 2,014 copies were made available to purchase, with one per customer. Presumably, a digital deluxe of some sort will hit DSPs around the same time.
2014 Forest Hills Drive marked Cole’s third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. Spanning 13 songs, it debatably housed some of his best work to date, such as “No Role Modelz,” “Wet Dreamz,” “Love Yourz” and “G.O.M.D.” The project hilariously spawned the “platinum with no features” meme, with production also being handled largely in-house — Omen, Ron Gilmore and Cardiak were among the few frequent collaborators who contributed.
Around the time of the LP’s full release, Cole told NPR that he actually shelved a number of records. “At one point this was a double album, and making those cuts was so hard,” he explained.
Regarding its unconventional release, the “Power Trip” hitmaker explained, “It's not an easy pitch, telling your record label that you want to put out an album with no singles. And that you only want to announce three weeks before, and you don't want to do any promotion.”
Cole’s Friday Night Lights and The Warm Up hit streaming services for the first time earlier in the month. His 2010 effort’s re-release, which coincided with the fifth episode of his “Inevitable” audio series airing, served as a “very special moment” in the artist’s career. Though he also previewed the CDQ versions of his and Kendrick Lamar’s early collaborations, like “Temptation” and “Shock the World,” there’s no telling if those will get the same treatment.