Veering off the course of your typical up-and-coming rapper these days, J. Cole has opted to not release a mixtape ahead of his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, expected to drop this fall. Instead of releasing the mixtape Cole says he will, however, leak some of the songs intended for the unfinished mixtape.

In an interview with Hartford, Connecticut's Hot 93.7, the North Carolina-bred MC said that the decision came because of how close the album release date is getting. He didn't want to release two projects in such a limited space.

"I'm not gonna put out a mixtape," Cole told radio hosts. "I just decided this, but the music I was gonna put on the mixtape I'mma just slowly drop it. I'll just drop it out online and they'll find it. You know, my fans will find it how they will. I'm confident. I don't wanna run and drop a mixtape. I don't want people to get confused with that. I don't want them to love it, because they'll love it. If I put out a mixtape they're gonna love it cause I don't know how to put out a bad mixtape. That's the problem. So I don't want them to fall in love too much and then my album comes four weeks later, five weeks later. We only eight weeks out. That's not a long time. I'll be giving them songs in the meantime so it's cool."
Cole World: The Sideline Story is set for release September 27.

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