The Off-Season
J Cole released his sixth studio album on Friday May 14, 2021 titled The Off-Season. The album centered around basketball one of Coles passions with a burning hoop on the cover, lots of NBA references like, Ja Morant and Lebron James. Recently news hit social media about Cole signing a contract to play professional basketball in Africa and made his debut on Sunday May 16th. Cole went platinum with no features on multiple albums, and most probably expected the trend to continue, but on the first track he has Harlem legend Cam’ron give a pep talk. Later in the album you get bars from 21 Savage and Lil Baby, and some melodies from singer 6lack, James Fauntleroy, and North Carolina native Morray. With the features from 21 and Lil Baby it shows Cole isn’t one of these old heads who is anti hype.
On the song titled “Let Go My Hand” he addresses the infamous fight he had with Sean “Diddy” Combs back in 2013. “My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would’ve thought it?/ I bought that ni**a album in seventh grade and played it so much/ you would’ve thought my favorite rapper was Puff/ Back then I ain’t know shit, now I know too much”, Cole raps. The altercation was rumored to have taken place at the 2013 MTV Video Music Award after party. These days Cole and Puff seem to be on good terms as Diddy provides the prayer outro for “Let Go My Hand'‘. “Lord, please guide our steps/ watch us, cover us so that every move we make is in alignment with your will,” he says.
The Off-Season arrives as a prelude to a teased final album titled The Fall Off. Canadian hitmaker T-Minus produced four tracks on the album, Cole produced every song except “Kevin’s Heart” on his last album KOD, so this time around there was more outside producers such as Timbaland, DJ Dahi, Boi-1da, Frank Dukes, and Jake One. “Applying Pressure,” “The Climb Back,” “and “Close” all produced by Cole stand out with the heavy drums and soul samples. The Off-Season represents the many hours and months and years it took to get to top form he explained in a recent cover story. In his short documentary he suggested he already got a lot of work done on his final album. Cole came out swinging with this album, Cole continues to prove why he one of the best to do it in this era and remains top 3 in the rap game, if The Fall Off is his last project expect more heat in that album as well.
