The Earvin Edit

What J. Cole claims to be his final album has finally arrived. After over a decade in the rap game, what does the Carolina MC have set in store for his send-off?

Written by Earvin Adjei

Fans have been eagerly awaiting The Fall Off since Cole first began teasing it in 2018. With two discs spanning over 20 songs, there is a lot to digest. Will he ride off into retirement as one of the best we’ve ever seen, or did his final effort fall short? Let’s discuss. 

The Good:

For the last couple of years, Cole has boasted about how he’s the best MC in the game, and when you hear how he raps on a project like this, it’s hard to argue otherwise. The storytelling on here is otherworldly. Hearing him rap his entire life story in reverse, starting from his funeral and concluding with his birth, is incredible (I know Nas did it first, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive). His stories about the Ville hit hard, making the album’s finality that much heavier. In addition to the storytelling, tracks like Old Dog and Two Six see Cole rap with such aggression that all you can do is make a stank face. 

The production across the album is versatile. When Cole brings that aggressive delivery, the production matches it on gritty tracks like WHO TF IZ U and Old Dog. Both tracks open with ‘Ring, ring, who the f**k is that?’ before the grimiest beat imaginable drops. But aggression isn’t all the production has to offer. Several beats feel heavy, reinforcing the album’s sense of finality. You wouldn’t think so based on the name, but Run A Train sounds like pure pain and raw emotion, coupled with Future’s raspy vocals and Cole’s slow, introspective delivery. The Alchemist lent his production to the project with Bunce Road Blues, which sounds like the title suggests, a slow yet suspenseful song with a blues feel. If you want to turn down the emotions or aggression, turn to a song like the Erykah Badu-assisted The Villest that has a beat that is funky and relaxed. 

The Bad:

Yes, I understand this is supposed to be J. Cole’s final album and a double disc, but 24 tracks is a lot. My problem isn’t the length per se, but more that the choice to split the project into two discs takes away from the first half a bit. Lonely at the Top is a great outro and closeout, but he opted to re-up for an additional 12 tracks. If some of Disc 39 were removed and combined with Disc 29 for a single album, I think the project as a whole would flow better. I get that the discs were split to represent different time periods in Cole’s career, but having the project represent his career from start to finish would have worked just fine. 

Continuing the discussion of Disc 39, some of the songs on here are a bit puzzling. J. Cole has always been known for his storytelling tracks, but some songs had me asking myself, why? The song What If was an example of this. A five and a half minute track where he raps as both Tupac and Biggie during their feud. Why? Can rappers, as a collective, agree to retire songs where they rap from the perspective of someone else? It’s a bit corny. It works on a song like Stan where Eminem raps from a crazy fan’s perspective, but doing it as two deceased rappers about a beef that’s over 30 years old felt a bit odd to me. Ideas just feel a bit overdone at times here. Another example came on the song I Love Her Again where Cole uses a promiscuous woman he loves as a metaphor for hip-hop. This was done with the intention of being an interesting way to write a love letter to hip-hop, but I think it is a bit overdone here. Why not just straight up have a song that does this instead of using the metaphor? The story of the woman feels more like something that would have gone on the first disc, which reminisces about Cole’s earlier days. 

Final Verdict:

If this is truly the end, then it was a hell of a ride. Cole is, without a doubt, a face of the 2010s rap alongside Drake and Kendrick Lamar. He stayed true to his roots here, and that’s not a bad thing. The bars are sharp, the storytelling paints a vivid picture, and the emotions are high. He delivered one last time, 8 out of 10.