The Off-Season
The Off-Season is the sixth studio album[3] by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on May 14, 2021, by Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records. The album was executive produced by Cole, Ibrahim Hamad, and T-Minus. It also features guest vocals from Morray, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Bas, and 6lack. It became Cole's first album since 2013's Born Sinner to contain guest features. Production was handled by multiple producers, including Cole himself, T-Minus, Timbaland, Boi-1da, Frank Dukes, DJ Dahi, Tae Beast, and Jake One, among others.[4]
For the 2004 film, see The Off Season. For other uses, see Off Season.The Off-Season
The Off-Season was supported by one single, "My Life", and promotional singles, "The Climb Back" and "Interlude". The Off-Season was accompanied by a twelve-minute short film upon its release titled, Applying Pressure: The Off-Season Documentary.
The Off-Season received positive reviews from critics and topped the US Billboard 200. It sold 282,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, earning Cole his sixth consecutive number-one album in the country. At the time of its release, The Off-Season achieved the largest streaming week of 2021, accumulating over 325.5 million streams. Four songs from The Off-Season debuted in the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100; every song on the album charted in the top forty. The album scored a nomination for Best Rap Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. Also, "Pride Is the Devil" was nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, while "My Life" was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.
Background[edit]
On August 7, 2018, Cole released "Album of the Year (Freestyle)",[5] accompanied by a music video. Cole announced The Off-Season,[5] which will precede the release of what was originally planned to be his sixth studio album, The Fall Off. In the description to the video, it reads: "The Off Season coming soon... All roads lead to The Fall Off - Cole".[6] In an interview with Billboard in September 2018, Cole announced his plans to take off time in 2019 from touring to finish work on The Off-Season, The Fall Off, and his Kill Edward project.[7]
On December 29, 2020, Cole posted a photo on Instagram where he documented a list titled, "The Fall Off Era". On the list crossed out, was features and Revenge of the Dreamers III. Also listed, but not crossed out was two projects, The Off-Season and It's a Boy, which he intends to release ahead of The Fall Off. The caption of the post read: "I still got some goals I gotta check off for' I scram...", alluding to a potential retirement.[8]
Recording and production[edit]
As one of the executive producers of the album, T-Minus began producing with Cole in 2017, collaborating on "Kevin's Heart", "Middle Child", and "Lion King on Ice". He spoke on producing for Cole in an interview saying, "Cole is very much a producer, so he likes to direct where the music is going as far as arrangement, or the bounce, or the feeling that he wants to have. So he gave me a bunch of ideas and pointers for what he wanted to do."[9] When asked about Cole's creative mindset for the mixtape, he said: "Cole is tapped into every aspect of the creation of the record. He writes all of his own music, writes all of the songs. He produces, he mixes; he's super involved [...] he's just that guy who's very grounded when it comes to the creation of the entire record, which is dope because when I create with him, he's very much directing where he wants the record to go."[9]
Commercial performance[edit]
On the day of its release, The Off-Season broke Spotify's one-day streaming record for 2021 up until that point with 62 million streams.[27] In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 282,000 album-equivalent units (including 37,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week.[71] This became Cole's seventh US number one album on the chart.[71] At the time of its release, The Off-Season achieved the largest streaming week of 2021, accumulating over 325.5 million on-demand streams of the album's 12 tracks, surpassing Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album which debuted with 240.18 million streams for its 30 songs in its first week.[71] The project also earned the largest week of 2021 for a hip-hop album, until being surpassed by Kanye West’s album Donda.[72] and Drake's album Certified Lover Boy.[73] In its second week, the album dropped to number two on the chart, earning an additional 92,000 units, while losing the number one position to Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, Sour.[74] In its third week, the album dropped to number three on the chart, earning 58,000 more units.[75] In its fourth week, the album dropped to number four on the chart, earning 44,000 units.[76] As of December 2021, the album has earned over 1,000,000 album-equivalent units in the United States.[77]
Four songs from The Off-Season debuted in the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, with "My Life" (at 2), "Amari" (at 5), "Pride Is the Devil" (at 7), and "95 South" (at 8). Drake, Juice WRLD, Lil Wayne & Lil Uzi Vert are the only other artists to have four songs debut in the top ten. "Interlude" debuted at number eight the previous week giving the album five top ten singles.[78] Every song on the album charted in the top forty on the Hot 100.[79]
Notes
Sample credits