Despite the open-minded new direction Cole takes, make no mistake: he shows zero mercy on The Off-Season. He hasn’t sounded this hungry since his mixtape days, when the young simba was rapping for sport, lyrically terrorizing other rappers and threatening anybody in his path, punchline by punchline. On his new album, he returns to his rap-first think-later instincts that defined his early mixtapes. Continue reading J. Cole Embraces the New Era of Hip Hop and Goes Back to Rapping for Sport On The Off-Season