J. Cole Backs Off Retirement Talk: 'I'll Never Say I'm Going to Retire'

J. Cole fans can exhale. The Dreamville rapper says he is no longer calling it a career, walking back the idea that The Fall-Off would be the last album he ever puts out.

In a new GQ sit-down with his longtime mentor Mark Pitts and writer Frazier Tharpe, Cole explained that he recorded the album fully believing it could be his final project. By the time he wrapped it, he said, he had changed his mind, and he now says he will "never say" he is going to retire, per HotNewHipHop's breakdown of the interview.

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Don't circle a release date just yet. Cole made it clear he has no idea when the next project is coming, only that he is not shutting the door on one.

The same conversation took fans back to his early Roc Nation days, too. According to Complex, Cole said he pushed back on working with the biggest hitmakers of the era because he wanted to build toward a "classic" album first, a stance he believes frustrated Jay-Z, who was looking for hit records. He credited Pitts with finding a middle ground by pairing him with producer Salaam Remi.

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Sources: GQ, HotNewHipHop, Complex

Was Cole right to make Hov wait for the hits? Rich Motion breaks down the Jay-Z side of the story at youtube.com/@RichMotion_Media.