J. Cole is days away from releasing his latest album, The Fall-Off, on February 6. The way Uproxx’s Jeremy Hecht sees it, he thinks Cole is retiring after this project, but he hopes to do so having accomplished one final goal.
In a new video, Hecht starts, “We all know that Cole dropped out of the battle with Drake and Kendrick, and with that, he did give up his ability to gain the crown as the greatest rapper alive. Some people like Fat Joe can’t even listen to his upcoming project, and I think that’s stupid: I’m excited for the album and I’m gonna listen to it. But I do agree that he has given up the chase of the throne. But I don’t think Cole cares at all. I think he only has one last mission.”
He explains:
“In front of his new song, “Disc 2 Track 2,” Cole put a message that I think a lot of people skipped over. He said that for the past ten years, he’s been giving himself a single challenge: to create his best album yet. He said he wants to do on his last what he was unable to do on his first.”
Jeremy goes on to discuss how Cole previously talked about wanting his first album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, to be a hip-hop classic. In his opinion, though, Cole missed the mark on that particular release. Jeremy concludes by saying there’s “no question” that Cole retires after dropping next week’s album:
“We might get another mixtape and we might get a tour so that he can sell out Wrigley like he said. But before he does that and before he rides off into the sunset on his bike, he wants to drop an undeniable classic album. I think he already has it with 2014 Forest Hills Drive, but this is Cole’s mission.”
Check out the video above.
