Hey, buddy, did you hear the news? It's track reviews.

Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd, and The Fall-Off season is here.

We have a brand new song and music video from none other than Fayetteville's own J. Cole, as his next record, the long-anticipated The Fall-Off, is dropping on February January 6th.

Good or bad, it will for sure be one of the most talked about rap records of 2026, especially because of the context in which it is being released. Because this record obviously arrives not too long after the infamous beef and battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, which, if you remember, originally started as a bit of a three-way with J. Cole involved, engaging with his own response to Kendrick, a lengthy track off of his Might Delete Later mixtape, which didn't reflect well on him. It was a poor dis, boring track. He apologized for much of what he said afterwards. And then J. Cole bowed out, and ever since then, he's pretty much maintained his peace.

And while the initial reaction to him making that choice was pretty negative, obviously, the way things heated up from there left a lot of fans feeling like maybe what he did there was the right move. It was the project approach. And it definitely says something for him to have moved on since then and focused once again on this project he has been hyping up the release of for years.

At the end of the day, all I hope is that J. Cole's album title here isn't inadvertently predictive, because for sure, when he started working on this album, there's no possible way he could have foreseen what was going to pop off in 2024/2025. So again, with that being said, we have this new track over here uploaded to YouTube, The Fall-Off "Disc 2 Track 2", which the title there alone is crazy.

With The Fall-Off, are we talking about two discs of material? I mean, it certainly would be fitting to get that amount of tracks given how long J. Cole has been working on this project. There's even an opening bit of white text on a black background saying, "For the past 10 years, this album has been handcrafted with one intention, a personal challenge to myself to create my best work. To do on my last what I was unable to do on my first." Wait, "do on my last?!" My last?

I know this record has been anticipated and talked about as a game-changing moment for J. Cole's career and trajectory, but I didn't know we were talking potential finale here. Excuse me for my ignorance. I had no way of knowing how much time, focus, and energy it would eventually take to achieve this. But despite the countless challenges along the way, I knew in my heart I would one day get to the finish line. I owed it first and foremost to myself, and secondly, I owed it to hip hop, The Fall-Off J. Cole.

Okay, let's give this track a listen. Let's see what it's got. I'm going to be honest. Expectations are high, not just because of the length of time put into this project. But also, brother, you are saying that you want this project to be your best and that you were going to work on this thing until it was that. So here we go. "Disc 2, Track 2."

Boom. Okay, wow. Damn. That was it? That was the thing? That was the track Okay, I don't mean to sound like I didn't like the track or that I was completely underwhelmed. That definitely wasn't the case.

I thought this was a pretty good J. Cole song with a very smooth, soulful instrumental, very gentle beat, tasteful vocal chops, very rich and layered, easy to listen to, but moody as well. The lyrical concept is super clear, very detailed, but it doesn't reach a super strong conclusion, or at least J. Cole doesn't go into the purpose of the concept or the reason behind it.

I suspect that's because The Fall-Off is most likely going to be very personal and very conceptual, diaristic and super existential as well, because the idea behind all of J. Cole's bars on this track is that he essentially starts from the latest point in his life, and then from there, with lots of details. He narratively moves backwards through his existence on this planet. Going backwards, going backwards. His son is becoming unborn and going back into the womb. He's becoming unmarried. Everything he did in his career is unraveling as well. He's becoming a kid once more. His whole life is flashing before his eyes, but backwards.

Now, a track from J. Cole like this at this point in his career is not too much of a surprise. The point that hip hop is at currently, there's been a lot of reflection as of late between the genre turning 50 years old and many greats who pretty much pioneered the whole thing, reflecting back on their early years. Even guys like J. Cole who hit it big in the 2010s and essentially became top-notch, top-tier artists for this new generation. With their careers being over a decade old now and they're seeing the music industry and their audiences change and shift over time before their eyes, now even these guys are feeling nostalgic.

And again, this track just seems to be the nostalgia and the reflection itself and nothing else. Given how short it is and how presumably large The Fall-Off is going to be with these two disks of material. This is just probably going to be one of many tracks building toward a larger picture, theme, concept, where, again, J. Cole is doing a lot of reflecting. And truth be told, he's always a pretty pensive guy. That's been a core part of his appeal for years. But given where he is right now in his life, he certainly has more to reflect on than ever at any point.

So whether or not he really truly digs deep and says something that's actually profound and interesting will really be the difference maker of whether or not he actually delivers on this being his best album, period, and if this ends up being one of the best rap records of the year.

Now, The Off-Season, in my opinion, many disagree with this, but I actually thought that was one of J. Cole's best projects so far, even though that was essentially just a taster. If Cole continues to give us that level of focus and avoids many of the awkward lyrical moments and points that he's attempted to make on past records like KOD. Because it's not like every time J. Cole has tried to get conceptual, has all been sunshine and roses.

But yeah, the closer we get to the release of this album, the more it feels like this is going to be a make or break moment for Cole. And I don't just mean simply in terms of the real-time progression of his career. It's already pretty clear that after this record, he's planning on shifting gears in some way.

No, what I mean is I really feel like this record is going to help define his legacy because given how many eggs Cole is putting in this basket, how far behind him many of his best and most classic albums are at this point. If he somehow leaves on a sour note because The Fall-Off falls far below people's expectations, it's going to be a while before people are looking at him again with the reverence they did back in 2016.

But yeah, I'm going to leave it there. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, J. Cole, The Fall-Off, forever.