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KOD (album)

2018 album by J. Cole

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ52053040 ↗
Source-derived summary

KOD (an initialism for Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed and Kill Our Demons) is the fifth studio album by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on April 20, 2018, through Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records.

The majority of the album's production was handled by Cole himself, along with others such as T-Minus, Mark Pelli, BLVK and Ron Gilmore. The album incorporates elements of jazz rap and trap. Cole has stated that the production and rhyme schemes used throughout the album were inspired by SoundCloud rap. The album explores a variety of topics including drug abuse, addiction, depression, greed, African-American culture, and taxation in the United States.

The album was supported by two singles: "KOD" and "ATM", both of which debuted in the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In August 2018, Cole embarked on the KOD Tour to promote the album.

KOD received positive reviews from critics and debuted atop the US Billboard 200, selling 397,000 album-equivalent units in its first week (174,000 coming from pure sales), earning Cole his fifth consecutive number-one album in the country. It also broke several streaming records.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “KOD (album)” as 2018 album by J. Cole. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around album and Cole.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2018. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with album and Cole providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “KOD (album)”, the useful work is to connect “2018 album by J. Cole” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q52053040. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “KOD (album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow KOD (album) primary sources, KOD (album) archive and album research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “KOD (album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.