Real name Jermaine Lamarr Cole, J. Cole has been one of the most insightful hiphop artists of the last 20 years, bringing an introspective depth and social consciousness to his art that can be uncommon in the current American rap scene. His fourth album 2016’s ‘4 Your Eyez Only’ was his biggest commercial success, while his 2018 fifth album ‘KOD’ broke a record previously held by The Beatles, by having six singles simultaneously in the Billboard Charts top 20. Cole has received 18 Grammy nominations, winning Best Rap Song in 2020 with 21 Savage’s hit ‘A Lot’ and in 2024 claiming Best Melodic Rap Performance for his feature on Lil Durk’s ‘All My Life’.

‘The Fall-Off’ is at its heart a concept album, telling over its two discs a story of J. Cole’s rise to stardom following the launch of ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’ in 2014, and the emotions he felt trying to work out what he would do next. He has explained that A-side “Disc 29” discusses his experiences returning to his hometown at the age of 29 grappling with the realities of achieving his wildest dreams so young, while “Disc 39” covers another visit home as an older, more grounded person. The full release runs for over an hour, spanning aggressive hiphop flows, moving singing, and lo-fi instrumentals, all packaged in a brilliantly polished mix. If this is to be his last album, it’s a fantastic send-off.

J. Cole recently took to Instagram to share his comments from an Ask Me Anything post in a forum on his site inevitable.live, saying “’The Fall-Off’, a double album made with intentions to be my last, brings the concept of my first project full circle”. He has expressed that in the not-so-distant future, he wishes to dedicate his time to his passion of making beats, working to produce for other artists instead of himself.

Before stepping away from releasing his music, he’s going out with a bang – ‘The Fall-Off’ tour was announced yesterday, opening with a North American run from July to September this year, before heading to the UK and Europe in October, ending with dates in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. These are the dates for the UK and Ireland, including extra London and Manchester dates added due to popular demand:

19/10 – London- O2 Arena
20/10 – London- O2 Arena
22/10 – Dublin- 3Arena
25/10 – Birmingham- Utilita Arena
26/10 – Glasgow- OVO Hydro
28/10 – Manchester- Co-op Live
29/10 – Manchester- Co-op Live
31/10 – Nottingham- Motorpoint Arena
02/11 – London- O2 Arena

Tickets go on sale this Friday, the 20th of February, at 9AM and can be found here, although news site HotNewHipHop have reported multiple complaints about long queues and difficulties purchasing tickets for the US leg. ‘The Fall-Off’ released on the 6th of February through J. Cole’s label Dreamville and Interscope records.

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In the lead up to this album, Post released the single ‘Rockstar’ featuring 21 Savage, with reached number 1 in the UK singles chart, and went 2x platinum, selling over 1,000,000 copies.

beerbongs and bentleys has already gone platinum in Post’s native USA, selling over 1,000,000 copies in the space of just three days, which is a huge testament to how huge he has become in 3 years. It boasts huge features from artists like Nicki Minaj, G-Eazy and Swae Lee as well.

His new album has also broken streaming records as well, as the 18 songs on the album were streamed just under 79,000,000 times worldwide in just the first day of its release according to Spotify.

The record was initially set by J Cole’s new album KOD just a week before, but Post Malone received over 10,000,000 more first day streams than the North Carolina rapper.

Love him or hate him, you cannot deny that Post Malone is now a worldwide superstar, and he has an enormous fan base that are incredibly dedicated and passionate about his music.

The announcement came following an intimate free show in New York, during which he played all 12 songs off the new project for the lucky audience in attendance. The surprise show came with the banning of phones, bags, cameras, and journalists, at the Big Apple’s Grammercy Theatre.

NYC. Come through. Couple hours from now. First come first serve. pic.twitter.com/Z71I9iRnnu

— J. Cole (@JColeNC) April 16, 2018

Cole later confirmed the news of the new album to the rest of his followers on Twitter.

New album. KOD 4/20

— J. Cole (@JColeNC) April 17, 2018

Following the show, Rap Radar’s B.Dot gave some insight into the show itself, as well as general info on the album, and  the potential sound of Cole’s fifth LP.

B.Dot revealed that KOD actually  stands for three different things (‘Kidz On Drugz’, ‘King Overdose’ and ‘Kill Our Demonz’), B.Dot also shared that the album was recorded in just two weeks and, features the ‘standout’ track ‘1985’, and as a whole sees the rapper “experimenting with flow.”

new #jcole album title: k.o.d.

three different subtitles (kidz on drugz, king overdose, kill our demonz)

recorded in two weeks.

— brian b.dot™ miller (@bdotTM) April 17, 2018

cole played the entire album. about 12 songs.

experimenting with flow.

standout tracks were the intro and last song, “1985”. no word on release date. but it’s coming.

— brian b.dot™ miller (@bdotTM) April 17, 2018

KOD will follow 4 Your Eyez Only, which dropped at the end of 2016. Cole will also be returning to UK shores this summer, performing at Finsbury Park as part of the Wireless Festival. The festival will take place from July 6-8, and Cole will be supported on the bill by the likes of  Post Malone, Wiley, and Big Sean. The festival will be closed by DJ Khaled, who will be making his debut on a UK stage, likely supported by a host of his friends and collaborators. Tickets are available now and can be purchased here.

In terms of features, Joey has enlisted some of the top names in US hip-hop to guest on the album, including J. Cole, Schoolboy Q, Styles P, Chronixx, and Flatbush Zombies’ Meechy Darko. Alongside this, fellow Pro Era members Kurt Knight and Nyck Caution, which is unsurprising considering Joey’s passion for remembering his roots, which he has shown on previous projects.

The album will also include previously released songs ‘Devastated’ and ‘Land of the Free’.  Given some of the titles of the tracks on the upcoming project, it might be fair to assume that Joey will bring some political lyricism and commentary, especially when enlisting similarly vocal artists like J.Cole.

As well as working on hist latest album, the 21 year old has also recently made his acting debut, the Brooklyn-set, Golden Globe-winning Amazon Prime show Mr. Robot, and spoke to Rolling Stone about his long-held passion for acting, in an interview before the second season’s premiere.

“I decided that, if music works out, acting will be relatively more easy. I could just use music as a leverage to get into acting. ‘Cause, especially coming out of New York City, there’s so many people trying to get into acting, just like there’s so many people trying to get into music. It’s almost like the same amount of people in the pool of it, you know. So if one is taking off already, I just decided I’d rather use that one to leverage to get to the other one. But they’re both things that I’m really passionate about. Of course, music being my number one, but I’ve always been passionate about acting.”

Joey also revealed that he had initially been cast in the Netflix-produced Obama documentary Barry, but he due had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts, elaborating that “I missed out on the Obama movie for Coachella. That’s one hell of a story to tell.”

When pressed by a host of the show, about the album’s existence, and indeed if he has a verse on the project, Ab-Soul was clear, saying “I can’t speak on that. I wish I could.” Not to be deterred, the interviewer continued to press him quizzing him on how many track would be on the album, and when audience’s could hope for it to be released.

Ab-Soul eventually cracked, and said “I don’t really know too much about it. I just hope they use my verse.[…] There is a Kendrick/Cole album. They got it. They got something in the works. They been working on that motherfucker for awhile.”

Fans have been baying for a collaboration between the two rappers for some time now, and this reached a fever pitch when Kendrick’s sister Kayla Duckworth confirmed the two’s collaboration on Instagram, and that audiences should expect the album in February of this year. The album never surfaced, and Duckworth quickly deleted the post. Fans were treated to a duet between the two on the track ‘Black Friday’ however, but this only featured the two MCs rapping over each other’s instrumentals.

Both J.Cole and Kendrick Lamar are enjoying a busy time in the public eye at the moment, with Cole having released his fourth album 4 Your Eyez Only last Friday, to great success. Kendrick meanwhile, was rumoured to have been revealed as one of the three headliners for next year’s Coachella Festival, alongside both Radiohead and Beyonce. Kendrick himself hasn’t appeared at the festival since 2012, when he made two surprise appearances, guesting with Ice Cube, as well as appearing onstage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg during their headline set.

Fans were alerted to a potential new album from the rapper in October, when Cole told fans that he wasn’t planning on performing live again “for a very long time”. Fans naturally assumed that Cole would be heading back into the studio, and this was confirmed on December 1, when iTunes briefly listed 4 Your Eyez Only as available to pre-order, though this has since been taken down.

J. Cole about to save 2016… pic.twitter.com/OwB9dwi1xt

— R.J Glosson (@RJthaDon89) December 1, 2016

Prior to the album’s release, Cole also released a 40 minute documentary called Eyez, detailing the making of his new album. The documentary can be found on Tidal, and features brief parts of the two songs that Cole has now released.

The tracks that were released are titled ‘Everybody Dies’, and ‘False Prophets’ (Be Like This)’, with the latter track attracting a lot of attention from fans, as it is being perceived to take aim at Kanye West, following the Chicago rapper’s recent erratic behaviour, which has resulted in his hospitalisation.