The Fall Off

7.21.20

J. Cole The Fall Off Album TBD

J. Cole announced on Twitter today that he will be releasing two new songs tomorrow night, that will later be featured on his upcoming album, The Fall Off. The tweet states that there is no release date yet for the album, because he is taking his time to perfect it. Reviews on the last song were very mixed, so I am sure Cole will be coming on his top game. In addition to the album, it appears he has a few other things he is working on.

Not only will J. Cole be rapping on the album, but he appears to be producing a lot of it as well. He states that the first single, The Clim Back, was produced by himself. The second song, Lion King On Ice, was produced by himself, along with T-Minus and Jetson. Of course we are familiar with his work as a producer, for Revenge of the Dreamers and much more, but overall this feels like it will be a very important project for the artist.

Yesterday afternoon, J. Cole also shared a letter that he wrote, titled The Audacity. It was published by The Player’s Tribune, a media platform founded by former Major League Baseball Legend, Derek Jeter, that provides content written by professional athletes. Typically, these stories are first person experiences of athletes throughout their career. In this letter, J. Cole speaks about his torn desire to be the best in the rap game, and to play in the NBA.

J. Cole explains he got a late start to basketball, but knew he had what it took to get into the NBA if he put his mind and time to it. However, he chose the rap game over basketball too many times to give him the experience he needed to make it to the NBA. During this letter, he also shared that he has two children, and still thinks about all of the things in life he wants to accomplish.

The title of this letter, The Audacity, is interesting. I was truly shocked and slightly disappointed that J. Cole shares he never made the basketball team in college because he did not fill out the paperwork, or decided to just go back to bed instead of going to tryouts. J. Cole, quit? Lazy? Come on! At the end, he says he is still searching for more mountains to climb, more competition and areas to compete. Like, the audacity of this man that you would think has it all, still searching for more (when maybe, he already could have?).

I wonder if this ties into his album, The Fall Off. Is that how he felt, after the criticism for his last song? Or is that how he felt, when he quit being an athlete to put his time into just one thing, which is rap music? For whichever occasion J. Cole is referring to, I am sure that this album will be a flip on the take of his “fall off,” proving he is an excellent lyricist and story telling, yet again.

On top of all of this, there are some images going around of the PUMAHoops athletes rocking a new pair of sneakers. The sneaker blogs, such as Bleacher Report Kicks, HighsnobietySneakers, Nicekicks and HypebeastKicks suggest that this is J. Cole’s signature PUMAHoops sneaker, which he was seen wearing earlier this year curtsied at All Star weekend. No word on the release yet, but it should be fun to see the guys hoop in them once the NBA comes back.

Lots to come for J. Cole, I’ll report back with some thoughts on the music soon.