Born on January 28th, 1985, Jermaine Lamar Cole, also known as J. Cole, is one of the best MC artists in our generation of rap. Growing up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole idolized well-known rapper Nas, which inspired him to start rapping himself, thriving through the 2000s with mixtapes like “Dollar and a Dream” and “Friday Night Lights.”
His mixtapes caught the attention of JAY-Z. After JAY-Z saw his talents, he signed Cole to Roc-A-Fella Records, JAY-Z’s own record label. This made J.Cole the first artist to be signed to Roc-A-Fella Records. Years later, after Cole became an independent artist, he followed in the steps of JAY-Z by making his own record label called “Dreamville Records.” After incorporating Dreamville as his brand, Cole would thrive in the rap industry, as far as being named as one of the “Big Three”, including Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
After founding Dreamville Records, Cole released seven albums, but after releasing his sixth album, “The Off-Season” in 2021, Cole posted a picture on his Instagram showing a photo of his projects, and at the end of it was “The Fall Off.” Most of Cole’s fanbase assumed that this meant the end of J.Cole as an artist and that this was his retirement album. Cole would also feed into this theory that his fanbase made by teasing “The Fall Off” in featured songs and his seventh album, “Might Delete Later.” Even as far as ending an annual festival he organized called “Dreamville Festival” that took place in North Carolina.
Although this wasn’t confirmed by the artist, Cole would finally give his fans what they have been waiting for since 2021. On January 14, 2026, Cole dropped the first teaser and mixtape from his new album “The Fall Off.” He announced the release date of the album, and it dropped on February 6th. After this announcement, many fans had mixed emotions because even though this project had been worked on for five years, with teasing going all the way back to 2010, this meant that this could be the end of an era of J.Cole as an artist, leaving his legacy to pave the way in the music industry.
