Why Did J. Cole Name His Album ‘The Fall Off?’

It has been over two years since J. Cole’s last album The Off-Season, and fans can’t wait for his next album, The Fall Off. He’s been teasing it for some time, but what exactly does he mean by titling it “The Fall Off?”

He’s gone into some detail before, but today, he gave much more insight while appearing on Lil Yachty’s A Safe Space Podcast. He tells his “Secret Recipe” collaborator that the title originated from a moment in which he felt “comfortable” with his success and began contemplating retirement.

“Oh, you lost a step in this regard,” he told himself, talking about his usually witty lyrics. “I had a real talk with myself… ‘You made it to where you wanted to make it to. Do you wanna keep going or do you just want to chill and go start a family? Do you want to retire right now?’”

The answer was that if he was going to walk away from the rap game, he wanted to do so at the height of his powers, not after a long … fall off.

Cole previously addressed the subject in his cover story for Slam, saying, “It was the first time that I became conscious of, like, Oh, this is where n****s fall off. This is where it happens. This is the point where it takes place, where the n****s that you love, when it just didn’t hit the same. It was literally like looking at a fork in the road. OK, you can go this way and continue to grow and get better, and push yourself and still feel feelings of exhilaration when you tap into new sh-t and move on. Or, you can go this way and live a more comfortable life that’s less inspired, less push, less stretching yourself, and getting out of your comfort zone.”

You can watch the full episode of A Safe Space With J. Cole above.