J.Cole’s The Off-Season Predictions
Editor’s note: While we understand that the Off-Season was already released by J. Cole, we still wanted to put this out to see if we were right in our predictions.
2021 has shaped up to be a rather interesting year in regards to rap music and well everything. With much of the world still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is not surprising that the rap industry has taken a hit as well. While there have been a few notable projects and singles here and there, there really hasn’t been much to write home about due in part to artists not being able to indulge in their normal routine, really get their creative juices flowing, or having to delay their highly anticipated projects such as Drake and his upcoming project Certified Lover Boy. However, there are a few notable projects that we are ALL very excited about, one of them being from ‘Young Simba’ himself, J Cole. With his upcoming project preceded by his documentary on YouTube where he unofficially confirmed that he would be including features (HOLY SHIT!) titled The Off-Season fans are understandably relieved, excited, and waiting with a hella lot of anticipation, hmm maybe we can even get a repeat of Summer 16, which is sooo soo needed, especially after the shitshow of the last two years we just experienced and hell even continue to experience.
Now, onto the predictions. Our first prediction is that the album will feature 10-15 tracks, some are even saying it might be a mixtape that stays true to Cole’s style. If you look at J Cole’s discography, the platinum-selling rapper has mastered the art of keeping his audience entertained for as long as needed while making fans question what fire is about to come next which he so slyly did by releasing just a taste of what’s to come a good week before the drop. He doesn’t overflow the listener with tons of convoluted and nonsensical bullshit but he also doesn’t overstay his welcome. He is fully aware that he doesn’t need to release a 25-30 track album to keep his fans satisfied. He is in tune with his audience and knows what they like and dislike from him, while amazingly not giving a shit (how he does it, we will never know). He also does not mind that a majority of his tracks won’t be ‘radio hits’, he always has a hard-hitting and direct message that you really need to listen for that most of the world is not ready for, this is a known fact, that won’t change any time soon.
In regards to the speculation about this being a mixtape rather than an album, we predict that The Off-Season is in fact a continuation to the theme of J. Cole’s early mixtape series. If you have been following Cole for a while, you will know that he released 3 mixtapes very early in his career: The Come Up, The Warm Up, and Friday Night Lights. All three of these mixtapes have this theme of a basketball player chasing his dream to make it big and putting in the work to get noticed hence the name of his first mixtape. Now that he has gotten the recognition and the chance to make it big he is putting all that he has learned to the test to start the next stage of his career hence the name of his second mixtape. And finally, now that he has made it, he is under the spotlight and can show the world what he is made of hence the name of his third mixtape. The Off-Season fits this theme perfectly. Now that he has achieved his accolades and succeeded in the rap game, he is showing the world what he has gained from this experience and just like every other NBA player during the off-season, making the most out of the opportunity.
Another prediction for The Off Season will be that it will be J Cole’s most experimental project to date. When you look at his stylistic evolution all the way back from 2016’s 4 Your Eyez Only to now, you can clearly hear that he has been experimenting with his flow and how he tackles the more modern and technical rap beats of today, it seems as if he is playing with fire and enjoying it, peep his cover artwork. From his features with artists around the industry, his 2018 release KOD, and his 2019 collaborative album Revenge of the Dreamers III, you can hear that he has been experimenting and trying out different rapping techniques and further perfecting his skills on the mic. Now that he has been in the lab doing his thing, we suspect that The Off-Season will be J Cole putting all of what he has been experimenting for the whole world to indulge in.
Cole seems to enjoy playing with fire figuratively, and even though you can see the clear evolution of his beats, he also does not like to stray too far away from home as you can see in his documentary, where he explicitly states that he has been sitting on a few tracks for years now. It almost seems as if we will be getting a taste of fetus Cole, evolving Cole, and EVOLVED Cole. He experimented, put out a taste test, analyzed reactions, and is going to determine that we need to be blessed with fire beats of past, present, and future, which is kind of a sad fact if you are a Cole Stan because we will never know if this is his grand finale, his Adieu to the game. It can also be predicted that the Off Season will be one of those albums/mixtapes that you listen to like you would Lion King on Ice, as Cole draws experience from the Black Experience, and by saying that it would be very strange that Cole would not allude to the events of 2020 and 2021. There has been no shortage of speculation surrounding the contents of his newest projects, excitement because he is finally back on social media, however, speculation is not much needed because we already know our man, beyond legend, beyond fire Jermaine Cole, and he ain’t finna disappoint, and that’s that on that! The real is back, the ville is back!