Cole’s highly-anticipated album The Off-Season was released May 14 and has received an overall positive reaction, as it is currently on top of the Billboard 200 chart and is No. 1 on Billboard’s streaming song chart.  

Although the album was expected to not have any features, artists such as 21 Savage, Morray, Bas, Lil Baby and 6LACK all made appearances, leaving listeners off balance with unexpected surprises. 

Cole, who is often linked with the NBA world, mentioned NBA players Russell Westbrook, Ja Morant and LeBron James while sampling local player Damian Lillard in “p u n c h i n ‘ . t h e . c l o c k.” In “a m a r i,” Cole gives props to Westbrook with the verse “Kill ‘em on a song, walk up out the booth, do the Westbrook rock-a-baby.” In “m y . l i f e,” Cole shouts out Morant, saying, “Ja Morant, I’m on my Grizzly;” while tipping his hat to Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James in “1 0 0 . m i l”  saying, “Can’t leave the game yet, I feel like I’m LeBron.”

In an interview with The Wolf, Tualatin High School junior Cam Peebles gave his opinion on The Off-Season.

“Personally my favorite songs were “p r i d e . i s . t h e . d e v i l (with Lil Baby),” “1 0 0 . m i l (with Bas)” and “m y . l i f e (with 21 Savage & Morray). On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it an 8.9.”

With over 290 million streams and counting, The Off-Season not only met expectations but exceeded them, giving J. Cole an opportunity to win Album of the Year.