J. Cole fans, including myself, have been waiting for ages for “The Off-Season” to be released, and finally our prayers have been answered with J. Cole’s latest album J. Cole has a very positive reputation in the rap community, and in my opinion, kept that reputation alive with the release of this album. From the lyrics, to the surprise features, this album delivered big time. 

J. Cole is one of the best lyrical rappers of our generation, and he proved that even more with this album. I found myself constantly rewinding songs to catch every lyric because I needed to know what was being said in every song. Most of the time when I’m listening to a song I’m just listening to it for the rhythm and the catchiness, but this album really made me pay attention to the lyrics. While it contains superb lyrics, this album is still able to maintain a good rhythm and production. 

J. Cole is famously known for his past three albums all going platinum without having any features on them. When he released the tracklist for this album it showed no features, which obviously made me think he would go with no features again. When 21 savage came on in “m y. l i f e” my mind was absolutely blown and it made the listening experience so much more fun. When Lil Baby started his verse on “p r i d e. i s. t h e. d e v i l” I had the same reaction as the first feature, pure excitement. 

The only negative thing about this album is that J Cole stayed in his comfort zone pretty much the whole time. He sounded the same as he has for the past seven years and didn’t really explore outside of the box. But then again, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Overall this album was extremely fun to listen to. The lyrics were phenomenal and the features blew me away. 

“The Off-Season”: ★★★★☆