J. Cole has given fans something to get excited about, seemingly announcing that he has new music on the way having teased the first offering in a new vlog.
Released on Wednesday (February 21) through a burner account on Instagram, the video is reminiscent of the 2000s-era ‘Smack DVD’ series that gave fans a raw inside look at what goes on behind the scenes with their favorite rappers.
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The clip shows Cole backstage on his current tour with Drake, as well as in a studio session with Tay Keith, chopping it up with Lil Durk and more.
Towards the end, Cole previews a new song and sets the tone with the opening bars, rapping: “I said I was finished but I want another two summers/ Hall of famer hungrier than all the newcomers!”
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The caption of the video reads “Might Delete Later, Vol. 1,” while the Instagram account has the handle @mightdeletelater26, but it’s not currently clear whether that will be the name of the song, the next project or neither.
J. Cole hasn’t released a new project since 2021’s The Off-Season. In 2023, he confirmed his next album would be the long-awaited The Fall Off, though he didn’t give an expected release date.
The Dreamville don shared the announcement on “To Summer, From Cole,” the opening song from Summer Walker’sClear 2: Soft Life EP which arrived last May.
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Featuring a heartfelt verse from Cole sandwiched by a tender hook from Walker, the song serves as an “audio hug” from the North Carolina rapper to the Atlanta singer — reminiscent of his uplifting poem about self-acceptance at the end of Logic‘s “AfricAryaN.”
“I’m thinkin’ about ya, I heard you just had you another lil baby/ Congratulations, I hope you got through it with no complications/ I find it amazing, the way that you juggle your kids, the biz, the fame, the bitches that’s hatin’/ They sit around waiting for you to fall off like the album I’m making,” he raps.
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J. Cole announced The Fall Off back in 2020, sharing an Instagram post that laid out his release plans for “The Fall Off Era.” The post also mentioned The Off-Season, his sixth album which dropped the following year, a possible project called It’s a Boy and, finally, The Fall Off.
Cole’s longtime manager, Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad, recently fueled excitement for the project by naming The Fall Off as the album he’d most want to see the rapper perform front-to-back on tour.
While further details remain scarce, The Fall Off could be be a bittersweet release as it may serve as J. Cole’s last hurrah. Despite being only 39 years old, the Grammy-winner has hinted at retirement on more than one occasion.
“Just cop ‘The Fall Off’ and he’ll explain/ Is it the end of the chapter? Happily ever after?/ Bet this gon’ be the year that fulfill his reign, man,” he raps on the Dr. Dre-sampling “Adonis Interlude (The Montage)” from the Creed III soundtrack.
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And on his “On the Street” collaboration with K-pop superstar J-Hope of BTS, he spits: “Some days, I wonder if I need to pick a different hobby/ I’m deep in with this rappin’, it’s all a n-gga know/ I never didn’t nothin’ better, it’s hard to let it go/ But like a father watching his daughter walk down the altar with tears in his eyes/ You gotta let her grow.“
