Ari Lennox Departs Dreamville; Inks New Interscope Deal

April 27, 2025 1

Ari Lennox is moving on from Dreamville. According to TMZ, the singer-songwriter is departing J. Cole’s label after a decade and has reportedly signed a new deal solely with Interscope. It comes on the heels of Lennox airing frustrations with her longtime label last year. In October, she posted a scathing criticism on X (formerly Twitter.)

“Interscope and Dreamville have been playing with me all month,” she wrote. “I’m so tired of people acting like they’re sorry for me, as if I’m just the face of mental health. I’m okay—I’ve never been happier. What I don’t appreciate is being signed, lied to, and manipulated. No one at these labels knows how to market or protect me.”

Ari initially signed with Dreamville back in 2015. She dropped her major label debut, the EP Pho, a year later and followed it with her first studio album, Shea Butter Baby, in 2019.

Dreamville’s roster includes artists like ID, Bas, EARTHGANG, Cozz, Omen and Lute; and Ari Lennox performed at the 2025 Dreamville Festival a few weeks ago. This year was billed as Cole’s Dreamville Fest’s final year. Cole said on the Raleigh, NC festival’s final night that something may emerge to take it’s place.

“We said this is the last Dreamville Festival,” he said. “I’m just keeping it 100 with y’all, that s— be a lot. We want to put on some amazing s— for y’all, we want to do it for Carolina, you know what I mean? We love being able to offer that and bring amazing artists. … But I’ma just let y’all know our plan. We still gon’ bring some s—.”

During her set, Lennox thanked Cole during that performance for supporting her when she was a new artist.

You can check out the video for Ari Lennox’s latest single “Soft Girl Era” below: