| It's Monday. Sharpen your style this week. |
Finally! A fashion-forward excuse to dust off those milk crates full of rare vinyls and to have people ask you about them. —Eileen Cartter, style editor |
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Why Was LeBron James Walking Around With a J. Cole Vinyl Record? |
During his 23-season reign over the NBA, we’ve learned some things about LeBron James’s off-the-court interests. He likes to fill idle time by doodling (shout out to his hand-drawn Bart Simpson in the Off-White fit). He appreciates the “genius” work of Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. And, perhaps above all else, the man loves music.
Given that his formative years coincided with the golden age of hip-hop, James is a well-documented admirer of giants of the genre like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Nas, and Jay-Z. But it’s not all ’90s classics for the 41-year-old basketball deity. He’s called Kendrick Lamar an “unbelievable talent,” posted videos of himself turning up to Lil Baby, and popped up in a Tyler, the Creator video last year. Now, we have a new data point to study in LeBron’s ongoing rap obsession. The man with the most points in NBA history has a new nickname: LeVinyl James.
On Thursday, photos hit the internet of James walking around in a vibe-y springtime outfit. The King stepped out in striped shorts, a crisp white tank layered beneath a light-blue Louis Vuitton button-up, and matching Air Force 1s. On his head, he wore a checkerboard LV bucket hat pulled low over a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. A glistening stack of diamond chains hung around his neck. But the real eyebrow raiser was what he held in his right hand: A copy of J. Cole’s 2026 album The Fall-Off on vinyl. Cole, who is almost exactly one year younger than James, has experienced a similar journey to the legendary Laker. The rapper’s mainstream breakthrough came with his second album, Born Sinner, which dropped in 2013, right as James was really tightening his grip on the league. Both Cole and James were prolific during the mid-2010s, and after some time away from the mountaintop—Cole went five years between projects, James hasn’t been to the NBA Finals since 2020—both are plotting their returns to the summit.
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