Despite dropping his sixth studio album, The Fall-Off, a little under two months ago, multi-platinum hip-hop artist J. Cole has decided his hoops career hasn’t fallen off just yet.

Cole, who last suited up for the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, will take his talents overseas after signing a contract to play with the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.

According to Charania, the rapper-turned-hooper committed to playing with the team last year but was unable to suit up, and will now honour those commitments.

It’s unclear as to when J. Cole will debut, as less than a month remains in the 2025-26 CBA season.

Cole last played professional basketball during the 2021-22 season with the Shooting Stars, suiting up for five games and averaging 2.4 points, 0.6 rebound and 0.4 steals while shooting 50 per cent from the field and 50 per cent from deep in 9.9 minutes per game.

While he didn’t get much of a run with the Canadian side, the Shooting Stars managed to advance to the CEBL championship game that season, ultimately losing to the Hamilton Honey Badgers. He didn’t play in the championship game but attended the showdown, cheering for his team from the sidelines.

Prior to joining the Shooting Stars, Cole played for the Rwandan Patriots BBC in the Basketball Africa League, suiting up for three games with the team in the 2020-21 season.

At 41 years old, it’ll take something of a climb-back for his hoop dreams to work out. But the multi-time Grammy Award-winner said it best: “Fool me one time, shame on you. Fool me twice, can’t put the blame on you. Fool me three times…”