J Cole Bags His Sixth No.1 On Billboard 200 With “The-Off Season” 2021 Album

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On May 4 2021, J.Cole, after a long break on his social media page, Twitter, officially revealed his album release date and cover. The cover features him standing next to a basketball hoop on flames.

The J.Cole’s 2021 album titled “The- Off Season” was eventually released on May 14, 2021. Thus, becoming his sixth album since his critically acclaimed 2018 album, “KOD”.

The album was released by Dreamville Records, Roc Nations, and Interscope Records. It was produced by T-Minus, Timbaland among many other producers, J.Cole inclusive.

For the first time since he released “Born Sinner” in 2013, the rapper featured other guest artists in his album, namely: Lil Baby, Bas, 21 Savage and Morray.

Initially, J.Cole 2021 album title was thought to be “The Fall Off” after a video promotion tagged “The Fall Off Era”, but this was eventually changed to “The-Off Season” due to some undisclosed reasons.

J.Cole’s 2021 album, “The-Off Season” , features 12 songs, with “Interlude” and some other singles from the album standing out and debut in the top 10 on Billboard 100.

Interestingly, every other song on the album charted in the top forty. The “The-Off Season” album, however, received positive reviews from critics, selling 28,000 album equivalent unit in its first week. This alternatively earned J.Cole his sixth No.1 on Billboard 200.

The Off-Season album also achieved the largest streaming week of 2021, accumulating over 325.5 million on-demand streams of the album’s 12 tracks.

The songs on the J.Cole’s “The-Off Season” album list are:

1. “95 South”
2. “Amari”
3. “My Life” (with 21 Savage and Morray)
4. “Applying Pressure”
5. “Punchin’ the Clock”
6. “100 Mil’” (with Bas)
7. “Pride Is the Devil” (with Lil Baby)
8. “Let Go My Hand” (with Bas and 6lack)
9. “Interlude”
10. “The Climb Back”
11. “Close” Cole Cole
12. “Hunger on Hillside” (with Bas

According to the MRC data, J.Cole’s 2021 album, “The-Off Season” , has the largest week of 2021 for a hip-hop albums.

It was also the second-biggest overall after Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) with 291,000 units (April 24-dated chart).

Prior it the release of the “The-Off Season” album, J.Cole released a documentary titled, ” Applying Pressure: The Off-Season Documentary” via YouTube featuring private moments scenes in the creation of the album.

J.Cole described the inspiration of the album saying,

“This is the moment that a lot of your favorite rappers hit a crossroads. Are you okay with getting comfortable? Did you leave no stone unturned creatively? And when I thought about that feeling, I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not cool with that.”

As expected, the “The-Off Season” album also topped other charts aside Billboard 200 and Billboard 100. Worthy of mentions are: Irish Albums, US Top R&B/ Hip Hop Albums, Canadian Albums, of which he peaked No. 1 in all the aforementioned charts.

It also broke the record for one day streaming on Spotify.

Based on the reviews from critics, the long-awaited 2021 album was described as top-notch, nothing short of expectations and “reaching astronomical height”. Fred Thomas, while expressing his own view on the album said,

“The album is a varied selection with solid performances and production throughout. Much like the title suggests, The Off-Season feels like Cole running through different exercises as he gets in shape for something bigger.”
[All Music]

Surprisingly, On May 10, 2021, J.Cole revealed being a part of a basketball teams, that which received mixed reactions from fans and other celebrities.

He signed a contract with the Rwanda Patriot I’m the Basketball African League and was subsequently featured on the cover of the American Basketball Magazine Slam for the May 2021 issue.

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