For many years now, J. Cole has been promising an album called The Fall-Off, a conceptual opus that may or may not be his final LP. Today, Cole finally made it official. The Fall-Off comes out in a few short weeks, and Cole announced it in a short, cryptic video that's mostly built around vague narration on the theme of things falling out of favor. At the end, we hear a quick few seconds of spirited rapping.
The Fall-Off arrives Feb. 6, and there's a website with a $50 vinyl pre-order.
Officially, this is Cole's first album since 2021's The Off-Season. About two years ago, Cole released the prophetically titled mixtape Might Delete Later. That one briefly included Cole's Kendrick Lamar diss, which he did actually delete. It emerged right after Cole started the Big Three conversation about himself, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar. Cole quickly learned that he wanted no part of that, and he removed himself from the conversation. He has largely kept a low profile since then, though he did share tracks like "cLOUDs" and "Port Antonio." We don't know what'll be on the album yet.
UPDATE: J. Cole has shared a track — "DISC 2 TRACK 2" — and a message...
For the past 10 years, this album has been hand crafted with one intention: a personal challenge to myself to create my best work. To do on my last what I was unable to do on my first. I had no way of knowing how much time, focus and energy it would eventually take to achieve this, but despite the countless challenges along the way, I knew in my heart I would one day get to the finish line. I owed it first and foremost to myself. And secondly, I owed it to hip hop.
