For years, J. Cole has used rap as a way to connect to his audience, with scenarios that they can either connect to or become enlightened by. He touches on issues about race, class, gender, and much more in clever ways that stay in the mind of the listener.

This year, the rapper helped to produce The Off-Season. released May 14, 2021, before a short documentary on the rapper’s mindset while making music was also released on May 10, 2021. In the documentary, he speaks on how he got into his music and went from a college party boy to a dedicated music artist. His friends had an intervention after a party, telling him he needed to do something for his future. This triggered him into waking up everyday to make new verses and beats, tired of not truly being seen as an artist, due to the fact being that he knew he was not putting in the necessary work. 

He also spoke on his dreams of once being a pro-athlete in basketball. He used basketball to compare his current situation at the time, to his past. Claiming that due to him not completing drills, and trying his best, that he couldn’t be what he thought he would. He viewed rap as another chance to do what he loved, and finally realized that a successful future would not be handed to him, just how he thought basketball would. 

“ I woke up, wrote verses, made beats, so all that to say The Off-Season was like same concept…one more time before I leave..before I feel I’m like I’m fulfilled in this game…let me try to reach new heights from a skill level standpoint…I put myself through drills, I really tried to work on my craft…just reach new heights and work on myself so that’s why I called it The Off-Season.”

The documentary made many viewers more in tune to the messages being provided within each song of not just his album, but his music as a whole. In “My Life,” many issues are brought into focus. He raps on how poverty, gun violence, and having one parent figure impacts families. Like in the verse here: “I’m just a product of poverty, full of narcotics to profit off quickly. My family tree got a history of users that struggle with demons, not really the hustler instincts.”

In “Applying Pressure” J. Cole raps “Envy, keep your pockets empty, so just focus on you. If you broke and clownin’ a millionaire, the joke is on you.” He almost effortlessly uses satisfying melodies and complex rhyme schemes in each of his songs. He inspires both his audience and fellow artists, to push themselves to max. Constantly using examples that any person off the street can understand as motivation.