Ever since J. Cole closed his 2018 album KOD with a song title “1985 (Intro To The Fall Off),” fans have looked forward to the album of that title with both anticipation and apprehension. For one thing, lyrics, interviews, and social media posts he’s made since then have all seemed to imply plans to retire from rap once the album drops. However, in a new cover story in Slam magazine, of all places, Cole denies that he has any such plans, explaining that while he’s at peace with never making another album, he has too much love for the game to simply declare he’s done.
“I’m super comfortable with the potential of being done with this sh*t,” he tells Slam. “But I’m never going to say, ‘Oh, this is my last album.’… Because I never know how I’m going to feel two years, three years, four years down the line, 10 years down the line, but please believe, I’m doing all this work for a reason. I’m doing all this work to be at peace with, ‘If I never did another album, I’m cool.’”
If it seems a little out-of-place for a rapper to be doing cover stories for a basketball magazine, Cole made sure to legitimize that as well; yesterday, it was announced that he’d signed a contract to play in the newly created Basketball Africa League as part of Rwanda’s Patriots team ahead of the release of his next album, The Off-Season, which is decidedly not the same as The Fall Off.