J. Cole positions his upcoming album as a meditation on time, ambition, and the meaning of coming home rather than a celebration of dominance.
In a reflective statement shared ahead of the release of The Fall-Off, Cole explained that the project was intended to reflect the origins of his career, dating back to the verses he began writing as a teenager. “Some of the original lyrics to The Come Up were written when I was 19,” he writes, citing the album as a conceptual bookend to his debut mixtape.
Cole said the title “The Come Up” had multiple meanings from the beginning. “Here’s the obvious truth: I want to ‘make my mark’ in the rap game,” he wrote. “The second was more subtle; I changed my physical location to do it.” At the time, he described himself as “a delusional teenager from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who decided to leave home and ‘come’ to New York City on a mission to chase his dream.”
Looking back, Cole said, listeners can still hear the hunger in the music. “When you listen to this project, you hear a college student, with a really sharp pen, tell the world how he’s going to do it, and in the process proudly put his unknown city on the map,” he wrote.
He also revisited the skits at the end of “The Come Up,” describing them as snapshots of his real life at the time. “I drove home from school during the break, called my mom to let her know I was still a few hours away, then called my accomplices, happy to let them know I was back in town, asking where the party was,” he recalled.
This cycle of departure and return became the basis for The Fall-Off, which Cole described as “a double album designed to be my last album.” The project is divided into two conceptual chapters, each centered on a different regression.
“Disc 29 tells the story of me returning to my hometown at the age of 29,” he explains. At that moment, ten years after he moved to New York, he found himself at a personal crossroads. “I am at a crossroads in my life with three great loves: my woman, my craft, and my city,” Cole wrote.
Chapter Two reflects the later stages of life. “‘Disc 39’ gave me an insight into my state of mind on a similar journey home, this time as a 39-year-old man,” he said, describing himself as “older and closer to peace.”
Cole also revealed that the album’s visuals are highly autobiographical. “All the photos in this version of the album were taken by me,” he wrote. The front and back covers are photos of him taken when he was 15, while the tracklist on the back cover shows the walls of his childhood bedroom. “As a teenager, I woke up every morning and looked up to you,” he added, thanking the artists and photographers who worked on the cleanup. “When this album comes out, know that, in some deeper metaphysical way, you too are a part of the music.”
“The Fall” is in theaters now.
