Release Info

The Off-Season is J. Cole’s sixth studio album and his first release of 2021. On August 7, 2018, Cole released a freestyle titled “Album of the Year,” as a promotional single for the album. Its release doubled as the announcement of the LP. In both the SoundCloud and music video description, Cole writes: "The Off Season coming soon… All roads lead to The Fall Off" The beginning of the “Album of the Year” music video references The Off-Season: The artwork for “Album of the Year” also contained references to The Off-Season. Cole continued to tease the album on November 9, 2018, when he created a Spotify playlist called “Where the fuck is The Off Season,” which, at the time, included many of his 2018 features and a few solo songs (it has been constantly updated). On July 22, 2020, J. Cole released Lewis Street, a two-track release that included “Lion King on Ice” and “t h e . c l i m b . b a c k.” While they both were intended to be the lead singles to The Fall Off, it was revealed days before The Off-Season’s release that the latter would appear on the LP, therefore making “t h e . c l i m b . b a c k” the lead single to the album. On December 29, 2020, Cole reignited the desire for The Off-Season when he posted a schedule of what he deemed “The Fall Off Era.” The calendar begins with two completed events, Cole’s famous feature run and Revenge of the Dreamers III, and they are followed by The Off-Season. After the album’s imminent release, the calendar lists (seemingly) the birth of Cole’s third son and the release of The Fall Off. On April 28, Bas made an Instagram post alleging that Cole had completed The Off-Season and that it would be released in “two weeks” (he later deleted the post). Two days later, Cole posted on his Instagram story that he had “just rode through the city to The Off-Season,” both proclaiming his excitement for its release and confirming the legitimacy of Bas’ post. On May 4, 2021, Cole revealed the release date and artwork for The Off-Season. On May 7, Cole released the album’s second single, “​i n t e r l u d e.” Three days later, he premiered Applying Pressure: The Off-Season, a succinct documentary about the album’s creative process and concept. Later that day, it was announced that Cole had signed a deal to play with Rwanda’s Patriots BBC in the Basketball Africa League. This seemed to be the intentional culmination of Cole’s storied work on developing a basketball career, so his reignited journey in the sport correlates directly to the idea and concept of The Off-Season. On the 11th, Cole was officially unveiled as the first solo artist to grace the cover of SLAM magazine. In his cover interview, Cole spoke on a few aspects of his life and explained the concepts of both this LP and its successor, The Fall Off. On the 13th, eight hours before its release, Cole revealed the album’s tracklist and producer list. Upon the album’s release, it was unveiled that it featured vocal contributions from 21 Savage, Bas, Morray, 6LACK, Cam'ron, and Lil Baby, amongst othe