Dreamville rapper J. Cole is expected to ink a professional contract with the Rwanda Patriots BBC to play in the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).

According to ESPN, the 36-year-old rapper, born Jermaine Lamarr Cole, arrived in Rwanda over the weekend and is under quarantine protocols in order to play in the 12-team league.

On Thursday, a day before the release of the rapper’s highly anticipated music album, his signing with the Patriots club is expected to become official. The Rwanda Patriots are slated to play in the first BAL game on Sunday against the Nigeria River Hoopers, ESPN reports.

Prior to his prodigious music career, J.Cole starred on the Sanford High School basketball team in North Carolina. He later walked on at St. John’s University but decided to pursue music.

In August 2020, the Detroit Pistons offered Cole an invitation to try out for the team. While it was never confirmed if the "Crooked Smile" rapper actually tried out for the team, Hot New Hip Hop reported that J.Cole’s manager met with the team last month. He later posted a picture from the Detroit Pistons’ state-of-the-art headquarters, thanking the organization for their hospitality.

Mike Zavodsky, Pistons' chief business officer, said in a release that J.Cole’s popularity as a music artist combined with his proven abilities on the basketball court make him an ideal partner to help expand the league’s cultural footprint.

“The NBA is a lifestyle brand. It's not just about basketball for the league. People follow it for the fashion, people follow it for the music associations. There's a variety of different reasons that people follow it in addition to just the game. It's a year-round platform that the league has created,” he said.

As ESPN reporter Shams Charnia reported, Cole is one of two import signings by the Patriots club, joining former NC State standout and former first round NBA D-League pick Brandon Costner.

On May 14, the rapper is set to release his fifth studio album titled The Off-Season. Last week, the North Carolina native released the track “i n t e r l u d e” to carry fans over until the Friday album drop. Despite the name of the song, Cole delivers well-thought-out lyrics.


“Told myself I would drop the album all at once,” he tweeted. “Sometimes you gotta say f**k it tho.”

The Off-Season cover photo alludes to J.Cole's first widely released mixtape, The Come Up, in 2007. Additionally, the flaming basketball hoop has been deemed by some as a nod to his potential career as a hooper and continues the rapper's basketball-inspired theme for his previous works which include The Warm Up, Sideline Story and Friday Night Lights.

In a December 2020 Instagram post, J.Cole revealed that The Off-Season is the first of three albums. He shared that the remaining two albums will be titled It's a Boy and The Fall-Off, a play on the 2007 mixtape.

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