Burna Boy & Tems featured on J Cole’s ‘The Fall Off’

Two of Africa’s biggest musicians are featured on the new J Cole album,The Fall Off, one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year. Released at Midnight ET / 7am CAT,The Fall Offhas been teased for at least a decade and, according to Cole himself, will be the final chapter of his storied career. Tems shows up on the songBunce Road Bluesalongside Atlanta musician Future.

Over a bouncy Alchemist beat, Cole and Future trade lines about being torn between pursuing love or the streets. And then Tems’ sultry voice enters the second part of the song crooning lines like: Burna Boy lends his voice toOnly You, a smooth love song in which Cole honours his wife, sing-rapping about her loyalty, their life together and how his mind was blown with the birth of each of their sons. Burna Boy contrasts this commitment lamenting about a love that isn’t as secure with lines like: At 24 songs, spanning 1 hour and 41 minutes,The Fall Offis a massive double-disc album that Cole hopes will not only be his last album but also his best.

“For the past 10 years this album has been crafted with one intention: a personal challenge to myself to create my best album,” Cole said in the weeks leading up to the album’s release. “To do on my last what I was unable to do on my first. I had no way of knowing how much time, focus and energy it would eventually take to achieve this, but despite the countless challenges along the way, I knew in my heart I would one day get to the finish line.

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I owed it first and foremost to myself. And secondly I owed it to hip-hop.” Adding to the pressure on this album to perform is the fact that Cole’s status among the so-called big three of hip-hop alongside peers Kendrick Lamar and Drake has been undermined ever since he backed out of the historic battle that initially involved all three emcees. Cole’s decision to delete a diss song aimed at Lamar and offer an apology on stage at his own Dreamville Festival that same year has long been the subject of scorn and ridicule. But ifThe Fall Offturns out to be as great as promised then none of that may matter.

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