Rappers are historically evasive to the concept of retirement. Very rarely do they actually want to close that chapter of their careers for good. Even an artist like Jay-Z couldn’t stay away from hip-hop too long after The Black Album in 2003. The idea to do one more project is just far too enticing. At best, artists will quietly hang it up, always leaving that door open just in case they change their minds. For J. Cole, The Fall-Off was supposed to be his grand finale. However, now he’s walking that idea back and clarifying what his next steps could be.
As promotion for the album, the Fayetteville rapper posted vlogs for the trunk sales out of his old Honda Civic. In the fifth one, he broke down the arc of his discography. “When you was riding, listening to ‘Friday Night Lights’, you was hearing me for the first time and you was hearing my perspective,” J. Cole said.
“So you heard somebody young, hungry, trying to make it and you heard the perspective clear. A lot of times, I feel like when our favorite artists get so big and massive, they run out of sh*t to tell us. Or they run out of perspectives to give us–human being perspectives.”
J. Cole Leaves the Door Open for a Comeback
Then, Cole explained why he initially mulled retirement. From his first mixtape to 2014 Forest Hills Drive acted as a formal artistic progression depicting his life. Everything after that was essentially filler or him working out different concepts. The Fall-Off allowed him to finish the story he was telling up to 2014 Forest Hills Drive. “It’s just lyrical exercise,” Cole said. “It’s me practicing to get to ‘The Fall-Off’ which is the continuation of the J. Cole story. Jermaine’s life story in the form of this J. Cole character.”
Now, the 4 Your Eyez Only artist feels like there’s “nothing else to say as Jermaine” through his rap moniker. Consequently, with that story finished, he’s at peace with whatever he does next. There’ll be features, production credits, maybe even an album if something calls out to him. But J. Cole feels at peace with the life story he was able to depict in his career.
“Ima rap probably, I’ll hop on a song probably, I might even fuck around if I get inspired enough, I may do an album,” he admitted. “But I don’t care to continue that story.”
The post J. Cole Teases Coming out of Retirement and Says Some of His Albums Were Just ‘Practice’ appeared first on VICE.
