Is Kill Edward Just J. Cole Featuring Himself On KOD?

J.Cole isn’t known for having guests on his albums. In fact, when 2014 Forest Hills Drive went platinum in 2015, he became the first Hip Hop artist to achieve the certification in more than 25 years without features. For this reason, die-hard fans and rap nerds alike were thrown for a loop when the artwork and tracklisting for his upcoming KOD album had not one but two features from a mysterious artist named Kill Edward.

So who is Kill Edward? A quick Google search reveals a whole lot of nothing except a song posted this week by a verified SoundCloud account (and on major streaming platforms) titled “tidal wave (Just a little reference).”

A pitched-up version of the track further points to Kill Edward being Cole himself, perhaps as an alter ego.

There’s also a Twitter account that matches the name of Kill Edward’s “Kill his ways” label, but it doesn’t really offer any clear clues about Edward’s identity. In its handful of tweets since January, the account has praised Michael Jackson and Lil Wayne, and only follows Minister Louis Farrakhan. Cole also follows Farrakhan from his verified account.