The Off‐Season

The Off-Season is the sixth studio album 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. The album features guest vocals from Morray, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Bas, and 6lack. 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.
The album was supported by two singles: "The Climb Back" and "Interlude".
Background
On August 7, 2018, Cole released "Album of the Year (Freestyle)", accompanied by a music video. Cole announced The Off-Season, 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". 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.
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.
Recording and production
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." When asked about Cole's creative mindset for the album, 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."