“Pride is the devil/I think it’s gotta hold on me,” J. Cole
croons in a slightly autotuned voice over a T-Minus
beat heavy on reverbed guitar and trap drums in
“Pride is the Devil,” the seventh track of his newest album. The
Off-Season is the North Carolina rapper’s sixth studio album
overall and the first studio album in Cole’s planned “The Fall
Off Era,” in which he strives for ever-higher heights to fulfill
his potential as an artist. In the opening track, “95 South,” Cole
opens with “This s*** too easy for me now…/…I’m bettin’ on my
self, then I’ll completely double down,” a lyric that encapsulates
The Off-Season’s mission statement—to escape complacency
and keep improving, regardless of how much success Cole has
already attained. “The Fall Off Era” began after the release of Cole’s last album,
KOD, in 2018. In a post from December 2020, Cole outlined
“The Fall Off Era” as consisting of features (in which J. Cole
appeared as a featured artist on countless songs by other art
ists), Revenge Of The Dreamers III (a full-length compilation/
collaboration album made by members of J. Cole’s imprint,
Dreamville, and others), The Off-Season, It’s A Boy (a presumed
upcoming mixtape or album), and The Fall Off, an album Cole has been teasing since the release of KOD and will close the era and perhaps J. Cole’s career.
In The Off-Season, Cole attempts to reassume the mindset of an up-and-coming rapper who hasn’t yet broken through; in his ascension to the top of hip-hop, he feels he was losing that drive to prove himself and attempts to draw himself back into that hungry mindset. He is determined to reach the pinnacle of his personal musical ability and to constantly pursue improv ing his game. He draws many comparisons between rap and basketball, name-dropping a number of NBA players, including Russell Westbrook (“Amari”) and Ja Morant (“My Life”). He also samples quotes from the Portland TrailBlazers’ Damian Lillard on “Punching the Clock,” drawing parallels between the work Cole does to improve himself in the rap game and the work that basketball players such as Lillard put in to improve themselves during the off-season, inspiring the title of the album.
Cole is known for reaching platinum certification on three separate albums without any features, yet as he transitions into this next stage of his career, he has said he wants to not regret passing up the chance to collaborate with other artists to bring out the best in himself and them. So, for the first time since 2013, Cole hosts a wide array of features in The Off-Season: 21 Savage and Lil’ Baby go off in perfectly suited verses on “My Life” and “Pride is the Devil” respectively, and Dreamville signee Bas contributes vocals on a number of tracks throughout the project, most prominently on “Let Go My Hand.” Cole forms incredible chemistry with every artist who he shared the mic with on the project, further showcasing his incredible skills and standing in the rap game.
In addition to diversifying the voices appearing on his album, Cole collaborates with a whopping 13 other producers on the Album cover of The Off-Season by J. Cole project, such as rap hit machines T-Minus, Boi 1da, and DJ Dahi. This is another change of lane for Cole, who is known for having produced much of his own discography. The result is an album featuring masterful production with sounds and styles ranging from relaxed and soulful (such as “Let Go My Hand”), hard-hitting and trappy (“Amari,” “Interlude,” and “Pride is the Devil”), grand and cinematic (“95 South” and “Hunger on Hillside”), and of course, Cole’s signature vocal chop and percussion-heavy beats (“Applying Pressure,” “Close,” and “The Climb Back”).
Along with branching out of production, in The Off-Season Cole continues on his trajectory towards a croony-er, more sing songy and R&B trap-like sound that he began on his 2016 album
4 Your Eyez Only, which featured a relatively large amount of singing, and continued in KOD, where Cole introduced auto tune and vocal modulations to his repertoire of sounds. In The Off-Season, J. Cole uses even more auto tune and vocal effects than before, with mixed results. On songs like “Amari” and “Pride is the Devil” (one of my personal favorites), Cole uses autotune to great effect to modulate his voice and accentuate the emotions he pours into the songs. However, in “100 Mil’” the au totune is simply jarring, making the already lyrically obnoxious song the only highly skippable song on the album.
The Off-Season is also a departure from his previous few proj ects in its lack of overarching concept. 4 Your Eyez Only focused on the death of a lifelong friend, and KOD focused on the perils of addiction. With The Off-Season, however, J. Cole loosens the reins, and attempts to relieve some of the seriousness that has dominated his discography over the years. On “Amari” Cole lets himself rap braggadociously on his success with his music and imprint, rapping “Dream ville the Army, not a Navy/How could you ever try to play me? Kill ‘em on a song, walk up out the booth, do the Westbrook rock-a baby,” in a style reminiscent of his mixtape days. On “100 Mil,’” unfortunately, it feels as though Cole has loosened the reins on his standard of lyricism slightly too far, as he repeatedly raps in broken autotune “100 mil’ and I’m still on the grind,” betraying his high standard of lyricism that he has made himself known and respected for.
Nevertheless, Cole doesn’t entirely depart from the insightful, introspective lyrics that make him my favorite artist. On “Pride is the Devil,” Cole raps masterfully on the destructive nature of pride, and his struggle in fighting his inner pride from taking over him. The song also features an impeccably set up and executed feature from Lil’ Baby, making the song a notable highlight and a turning point in the album as it kicks off the incredible second half of the project. On the next track, “Let Go My Hand,” Cole opens up on fatherhood for only the second time in his career (the first being in my all-time favorite J. Cole verse: “Sacrifices” from Revenge of the Dreamers III). With vulnerable lyrics, brilliant anecdotes such as “Ignorance is bliss and innocence is just ignorance before it’s introduced to currency and clips,” an intimate flow, and a magnificent sung verse from Bas, “Let Go My Hand” is the standout song of the album. With The Off-Season, J. Cole seems to be getting back into his groove as a solo artist, building up his confidence, and sharpening his skills—doing drills, per se—in prepara tion for what is anticipated—and seemingly intended—to be his career-defining proj ect, The Fall Off. While the project can feel somewhat disjointed at times, it is certainly a strong effort. Containing notable high lights (“Let Go My Hand,” “Pride is the Devil,” “The Climb Back,” and “Close”), The Off-Season certainly does not disappoint and will not be soon forgotten. However, it does contain an uncharacteristically nota ble lowlight—“100 Mil’”—that holds it back from contending for being Cole’s best album. Nevertheless, The Off-Season only makes me more excited for the rest of “The Fall Off Era” as I eagerly wait for It’s A Boy and The Fall Off.