"Took years to get this form. The Off-Season," J. Cole tweeted just as his album made its way to streaming services at the stroke of midnight on Friday (May 14). The leader of Dreamville began rolling out the album a little over a week ago after teasing the project for months. Cole spent the better part of 2020 moving in silence, for the most part, and only recently has it been revealed that aside from running a record label and penning a new album, he was getting his sports career on track with the Africa League.
The Off-Season in its entirety is a stand-out and there are more than enough options for tracks to highlight, but we're going to start off with "a p p l y i n g . p r e s s u r e." It would be easy to call this "boastful bars," but J. Cole isn't necessarily spending the entirety of the record bragging as much as he plays observer and commentator of Rap culture. The track also shares the same name as Cole's recently released documentary.
Stream "a p p l y i n g . p r e s s u r e" and let us know what you think of this The Off-Season cut.
Quotable Lyrics
Verses hit hard, never pitched hard or played the streets
These n*ggas whips are behind closed doors, can't pay the lease
Ain't nothin' wrong with livin' check to check 'cause most have to (I ain't sayin’ that)
Instead of cappin’, why don't you talk about being a broke rapper? (I ain’t sayin' that)
That's a perspective I respect because it's real
What it’s like to be nice as f*ck, but got to stress to pay the bills