J. Cole Confirms New Album ‘The Fall Off’ In the Works

On May 19, Summer Walker released her brand new nine-song EP CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE, her first project since her 2021 sophomore studio album Still Over It. For the EP’s intro, Walker enlists the help of J. Cole, as he offers her a sincere message in the form of an interlude on “To Summer, From Cole.”

Along with thanking her and fellow R&B stars like SZA and Ari Lennox for their tremendous contributions to music, Cole extends empathy to Walker in regard to her new life as a mother of two children. Midway through what he refers to as “an audio hug,” Cole addresses Walker’s haters while also sharing a tidbit about his highly-anticipated album The Fall Off, essentially confirming that it is currently in the works.

I’m thinkin’ about ya
I heard you just had you another lil’ baby, congratulations
I hope you got through it with no complications
I find it amazing the way that you juggle your kids, the biz, the fame
The bitches that’s hatin’, they sit around waitin’ for you to fall off, like the album I’m makin’

Cole has been alluding to The Fall Off for half a decade, dating back to his 2018 studio album KOD, as the LP’s outro was titled “1985 (Intro to ‘The Fall Off’).” A few days after KOD‘s release, he confirmed via Twitter that he was in the midst of crafting The Fall Off.

Two years later in July 2020, Cole released a two-pack of singles titled Lewis Street, which included “The Climb Back” and “Lion King on Ice,” meant to be promotional singles for The Fall Off. However, a few months later in December, he posted an Instagram photo of his “plan” for the rest of his career, which included a detour from The Fall Off.

Instead of The Fall Off coming after KOD, Cole decided he would instead drop albums The Off-Season and It’s a Boy, then finish off his hip-hop tenure with The Fall Off. In 2021, he would repurpose “The Climb Back” for The Off-Season‘s track list, which would eventually be nominated for a Rap Album of the Year Grammy in 2022.

Most recently, Cole’s manager and president of his Dreamville label Ib Hamad alluded to The Fall Off in February of this year, saying on Twitter that he would want Cole to perform the whole album live.

It’s unclear if Cole still plans to put out It’s a Boy before The Fall Off as either a mixtape or album, but with his latest appearance on Summer Walker’s EP, it’s evident that the North Carolina-bred icon is gearing up for another special full-length release.

Photo by Josh Brasted/FilmMagic