J. Cole‘s new album The Fall-Off is officially around the corner.
Catching the hip-hop world by surprise on Wednesday (January 14), the Dreamville rap star announced that his long-awaited seventh album will be released on February 6 — just over three weeks away.
The news came via a short cinematic trailer that narrates the concept behind the title and also includes a snippet of an unreleased song.
“Everything is supposed to go away eventually,” a voice says over shots of J. Cole cleaning his Lamborghini at a car wash and eating a meal on his own at a diner. “You see this especially in show business with famous actors or musicians. And it’s like, ‘Oh, this guy used to be famous and then he ‘fell off.’ What happened?’
“And they want to point to, ‘They did this and this and they made some sort of mistake.’ Instead of thinking that, look, it’s kinda crazy they got famous in the first place. So few people reach that level that yes, of course, it’s not gonna last forever because somebody else has to take that spot.
“And that’s how show business has been since forever. But no, they always want to say, ‘That guy fell off.’ They want to look down on him for just going through the natural cycle of rising and falling.”
The video closes out with a 30-second preview of a hard-hitting, southern-flavored track on which Cole raps: “Picture my soul climbing out of the infinite hole / Where n*ggas die over pride and live for the” — before it cuts off in a flurry of gunshot sounds.
Check out the trailer and cover art for The Fall-Off below. Vinyl copies are available to pre-order here.
