The Fall-Off


The Fall-Off is the upcoming seventh and final studio album by American rapper J. Cole, set to be released on February 6, 2026 through Dreamville and Interscope Records.

Background

began teasing The Fall-Off via "1985 ", the final track of his 2018 album KOD. He continued to tease it following KOD release, commonly through his Kill Edward alter ego. In the same year, Cole revealed more information regarding the album during his interview with Angie Martinez on May 9, 2018, stating that the singles "False Prophets" and "Everybody Dies" were originally recorded for The Fall-Off.
On July 20, 2020, Cole wrote in The Players' Tribune about his goals for The Fall-Off:
On July 21, during the release of his EP Lewis Street, Cole revealed that the two songs on the EP, "Lion King on Ice" and "The Climb Back", would be the first tracks on The Fall-Off.
On December 29, 2020, Cole posted a picture depicting the Fall-Off Era, which showcased the supposed timeline of releases from Cole leading up to The Fall-Off itself. The timeline had the following milestone releases in order: features, Revenge, KOD, The Off-Season, It's A Boy, and The Fall-Off. Of the listed releases, everything up until KOD was scratched off, marking them as completed. This image fueled theories that Cole would be dropping It's A Boy before The Fall-Off, strengthened by its reappearance in Dreamville merchandise sold during his It's All a Blur Tour - Big as the What? with Drake in 2024, with The Off-Season also appearing to be scratched off.
On May 10, 2021, Cole revealed more information about The Fall-Off on the documentary Applying Pressure: The Off-Season Documentary.
On Nov 2, 2023, on the A Safe Place podcast with Lil Yachty and MitchGoneMad, Cole spoke again about the concept behind the album.
In 2024, Cole explained the concept of this album in detail on his audio series "Inevitable". Following his successful run of 2014 Forest Hills Drive, the status at the height of his career inspired the album title. He explained that he felt stuck in a comfort zone and was looking for a word that best describes this feeling. While thinking of titles for this album, he wanted it to be in the theme of his mixtapes: The Come Up and The Warm Up, and came to the conclusion of "it's The Fall Off, you're experiencing The Fall Off. That's gonna be the album, but it's not time yet."
On the motivation behind planning this release to be his final album, Cole wrote:

Recording and production

In an interview, Cole revealed that he began recording The Fall-Off in 2016, which coincides with lyrics on a feature appearance on DJ Khaled's "Jermaine's Interlude" where Cole teased his "thoughts of retirement". The 2016 singles "False Prophets" and "Everybody Dies" were recorded for The Fall-Off. In his 2021 Applying Pressure: The Off-Season Documentary, Cole spoke about the recording process saying:
In his interview with Timmhotep Aku, Cole revealed his creative process behind Disc 2 Track 2.

Release and promotion

On January 14, 2026, Cole released a trailer for The Fall-Off and announced it would be released on February 6, 2026. The same day, he released the single "Disc 2 Track 2", implying that The Fall-Off would be a double album.
A day before his 41st birthday, January 27, 2026, Cole would release Birthday Blizzard '26. This was a 4-track freestyle EP over classic hip-hop beats to build anticipation for the album.