J. Cole has shared more details about the double album covers for his upcoming LP The Fall-Off and how they’re represented in his new music.
One week after unveiling his second album cover for his seventh, and possibly final, project, the two-time Grammy winner provided insight on how The Fall-Off is in conversation with his 2007 mixtape, The Come Up.
“Some of the very first verses for The Come Up were written when I was just 19 years old,” Cole shared on Wednesday (February 4). “The title of that project, the first one that I would ever release, had a double meaning. There was the obvious one; my ambitions to "come up" in the rap game. The second was more subtle; my physical change of location to do so.”
The North Carolina native added that he was a “delusional teenager” that relocated to New York City on a “dream-chasing mission,” with hopes to make future fans discover his “sharp pen” while putting his hometown of Fayetteville “on the map.”
“Towards the end of The Come Up, a couple skits tell a common story for me at that age,” he continued. “Me, driving back home from school on a holiday break, calling my mom to let her know I'm a few hours away, then calling my homeboys, excited to let them know I'm back in town, asking where the party at?
“The Fall-Off, a double album made with intentions to be my last, brings the concept of my first project full circle.”
Cole added that Disc 29 finds him at a “crossroads” upon returning to his hometown at 29 years old, while Disc 39 brings him on a similar trip home, albeit 39 years old and “a little closer to peace.”
Cole went on to share that the photograph in his tweet was the back cover, and that all pictures in one of the album’s versions were taken by him.
“The front and back cover are photographs I took when I was 15. This back cover, that includes the tracklist, is a picture I took of the walls in my bedroom at the time,” he wrote. “Thank you to every artist and photographer that cleared these pictures. I woke up every morning as a teenager quite literally looking up to yall.”
Cole concluded, “When this album releases please know that you, in some deeper metaphysical type way, are in the music too.”
The Fall-Off is set to drop on Friday, February 6, and comes five years after his sixth studio album, The Off-Season. In 2024, the rapper dropped his surprise mixtape Might Delete Later.