Over the summer, Charlotte rapper Lute announced that he had finished recording a followup to his stellar debut album, West 1996, entitled West '96 Pt. II: Still Slummin'. But then things got quiet. Perhaps for good reason.

Over the weekend, J. Cole released a mixtape entitled Revenge of the Dreamers II. Featured on the nine-track album is a reworked version of Lute's song, "Still Slummin'." Then came word that Dreamville Records has signed Lute to a deal.

Lute is a former member of Forever FC, the Charlotte hip-hop collective which has since disbanded. The group was also featured on Vol. 6 of CL's Homebrew music series.

Congratulations, Lute. We can't wait to see where this leads you.