REVIEW: J. COLE - THE FALL-OFF

4/5

Fall Through

It's a cold world, but it's still a Cole one. Even if some fans lost respect for Jermaine when he gracefully bowed out of the big-three beef with Kendrick Lamar and Drake...but we all knew who the big he was anyway. Cole's move showed class like his concert speech. I'm just mad at him for saying that Kendrick fell-off "like 'The Simpsons'". I sit on that sofa every day after work to watch the Evergreen Terrace family. I know it ain't like it used to be, but I still love them the same. Well, falling through like coins in the couch (thank you, Drizzy), J. Cole is back with 'The Fall-Off'. His seventh seal and first album since 2012's all-star weekend of 'The Off-Season' coming in around the same time he got a SLAM cover and contract with the NBA's Africa league. Following his fourth mixtape, 'Might Delete Later' in 2024, that he took back like his K.Dot diss.

Preceded by the sensational single 'The Fall-Off Is Inevitable' and it's classic continuing and compelling music video, Cole purists are in for a treat, as 'The Fall-Off' is a double album. But wait...word on the street, confirmed by Cole, is that this double delight is actually his final studio album. Well, if that's so, he goes out with a bang! Like Kobe, there are 24 new tracks to remind you who the G.O.A.T. still might be. Conceived over a decade in a room that looks like the awe-inspiring artwork. Just one wooden easy chair and the hard work of a lot of wires, 808s, CDs and tapes in the deck. The instant vintage that powered Jermaine Cole to be the powerful platinum artist that he is and you can see in the amazing alternative artwork's perfect portrait. Beautiful beats ('Drum N Bass') and lasting lyrics ('Bombs In The Ville/Hit The Gas') lace these changing CD's, as J. Cole gives it up for various legends that came before him, covering and interpolating lyrics from the likes of DMX and OutKast.

This one hour and one-minute long album shows that 2026 is already going to be a big one, just one week into the second month. Coming seven days after the UK's finest Labrinth also gave us part one of a two disc special with his 'Cosmic Opera Act I', coming after last year's 'Prelude'. And Cole had his own precursing EP with last month's celebrated 'Birthday Bash' with DJ Clue. After the '29 Intro', featuring a serious sample of James Taylor's 'Carolina In My Mind', the NC rapper gives us what he's known best for, a hive of active lyrics that sting like a hornet's nest. The man that once boasted about having no features, also has uncredited cameos from Future ('Run A Train', 'Bunce Road Blues' (also with Tems)), Erykah Badu ('The Villest'), Petey Pablo ('Old Dog'), Burna Boy ('Only You') and Morray ('What If'). Not to mention, production from the legendary likes of The Alchemist and many, many more. From 'Two-Six', to the beautiful bonus of 'Ocean Way', the 'Safety' if off as Jermaine unleashes lines like, "Congruent with s### that I do to rhymers/On Deuteronomy, ain't s### n####s can do but honor me/What I'm quotin’ is God sculpted, come view the pottery" for all you 'Poor Thangs' like a "punk b####!"

The 'Legacy' has already been set for this legend of the game, but tracks like 'The Let Out' will make you wish for another album of the same name. Let it be so, Jermaine. Because it's 'Lonely At The Top', but it's never been this compelling. This player's tribune gives us a 'Life Sentence' of dedications ("My flow switch, slow the pace, this the Ma$e one/I'm not a player but I'm crushin' like the late Pun/Let's take one, go"). Pointing to the only one that can judge, the most high, as the 'Man Up Above' offers the terrific Saturday to Sunday, night to mo(ur)ning testament of, "Certainly are, while y'all prefer to be hard/Memories of my dog's wake, it's hurtin' me, y'all/The windows to his soul closed, saw its curtains be drawn/Innocent as a child, but weren't we all? Before the h##s and the smoke." 'I Love Her Again' takes you even further into the heart of a man who delves deeper. And even a 'Quik Stop' offers the quotables of, "We need to change our ways, doin' the same thing we did yesterday/Making beats, gettin' high, chasing freaks, feeling fine/It's still the same old s### (The same old s###), but I think we ain't gon' quit/Making a rhyme, climbing a hill, stayin' alive, tryin' to live." Wise words to ponder before that's it for all of us. Trust, 'and the whole world is the Ville' as Fayetteville's finest signs off with his last sports adjacent album. The Friday night lights are shut off, but the sideline story will still be told. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'The Fall-Off Is Inevitable', 'Legacy', 'Ocean Way'.

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