Jermaine Cole, also known as J. Cole, put his music back on the spotlight with his seventh and speculated final studio album “The Fall-Off”. This album was first teased in Cole’s 2018 album “KOD” with the final track being titled “1985-Intro to ‘The Fall Off’” and the album was finally released on Feb. 6.
The album is filled with rich, story driven music reflecting J. Cole’s career. The record consists of 24 tracks making it a double album describing J. Cole’s return to “The Ville” aka North Carolina at two different points of his life.
Cole’s new album is separated into two parts highlighting two points of his career. “Disc 29” focuses on his late 20s to early 30s career and the second disc, “Disc 39” focuses on J. Cole now and his growth as a person and global superstar.
The beauty of this album doesn’t even start with the first track. It starts with the story behind the album cover.
“The Fall-Off cover that is currently circulating is a picture I took on a disposable camera when I was 15 years old,” Cole said on an Instagram post. “My first beats were made in that spot, surrounded by my mother’s CD collection that I would comb through looking for samples.”
To strengthen the idea of returning back home, the first official song titled “Two Six” references his hometown of Fayetteville, N.C. due to it being the 26th county of the state. This song is a reflection of J. Cole’s own come up from the rap game from his humble beginnings in North Carolina to becoming a rap veteran.
Starting off the first verse of the track, Cole uses a lot of double-entendre’s (a line or phrase that has more than one meaning) in his bars. In true J. Cole fashion, he keeps on shouting out the Ville, but this time it’s interpreted as his departure and return to the town.
In the same track, he talks about how he’s the future of rap and just to forget about the past. This could be interpreted with his past controversy with rapper Kendrick Lamar and how he deleted his diss track “7 Minute Drill” against the L.A. rapper.
Cole ends the track strongly with him talking about falling off and falling on his face but he knew he’d find a way to get back up.
Another personal song comes after “Two Six” titled “SAFETY” putting Cole in the shoes of a childhood friend. The song was meticulously crafted with the lyrics being a series of check-in messages made by the aforementioned friend.
The friend tells him how life is in the Ville and how much the friend is proud of Cole’s success as a rapper. In the ears of the listener, the friend wasn’t just an acquaintance Cole had made but a brother. No matter how popular Cole got as an artist, the friend never asked for a bit of the money he made because in the end, Cole isn’t a celebrity in his eyes but a brother.
Overall, the first “disc” of this album was amazing, with great production on the song “Poor Thang” to a mix of Latin inspired instrumentals in the song “The Let Out”. “Disc 29” really highlighted Cole’s lyricism, emotional maturity, and his overall growth as a person.
On another note, “Disc 39” puts us in the perspective of a more old and mature version of Cole. A great example of Cole reflecting on how his music journey has changed is on the track “I Love Her Again”.
Contrary to the title, the song isn’t about a former romantic partner but about rap and hiphop.
Cole uses a feature amazingly by featuring the rapper Common. Both artists use “her” as a personification for hiphop. Common previously used this in his 1994 track “I Used to Love H.E.R”.
This track hit deep with Cole turning rap and hiphop into a woman he had relations with but fell out of love with until the ending of the song where he says, “As long as she’s alive I know I’ll always have a friend. Thank God I think I’m falling back in love with her again.”
Not only can this song be interpreted as a song about rap but fans can listen to this and interpret it as an on and off relationship, giving this song a double meaning to Cole and his audience.
To finally close off the double-album the final official song is titled “and the whole world is the Ville”. This song references everything from Cole’s childhood and the people he’s met and seen growing up in Fayetteville. The song goes in-depth with how Cole became a household name as a rapper.
As a final song, Cole goes full circle by starting his third and final verse by saying, “Now this tale was composed for those who arose within this lil’ area code on the globe”.
For many of his albums Cole has been wanting to put his state and hometown on the map. If this record was his last album then he’s definitely accomplished his goal. In the words of YouTube comedy group RDCworld1 in their J. Cole skit, “It’s a classic.”
