J. Cole Talks About Being Present with Yourself and Your Career in the Off-season in New Documentary

Hailing from North Carolina, successful rapper J. Cole has made a name for himself as one of the hottest rappers in the industry. J Cole has worked with so many artists such as Missy Elliott, 21 Savage, Miguel, Ari Lennox, and the list goes on. Recently, J. Cole dropped a documentary on YouTube entitled Applying Pressure: The Off-Season. The documentary has a level of elements that exude inspiration, hard work, and how being relaxed can affect not only your career but your mental health as well. He speaks on how he had nothing after college and struggled to make ends meet. He speaks on how all he did was party, drink and smoke. One night in particular, Cole’s friends had an intervention with him and it literally woke him up! From then on, every day he woke up and wrote verses and made beats. Being the sports player he is, he created what he calls a 7-minute drill to work on his craft to reach new heights and push himself.

The creativity that stood out about this documentary is the chapters he goes through to break down every area of his “Off-Season”. Each section gives a different meaning and a different outlook on how he feels his life made various turns. Starting with Chapter One: Comfort is the Enemy; Cole talks about how rappers get comfortable after meeting certain goals in their career. There are rappers that allow the fruits of their labor to work against them because they get too comfortable. You ask yourself, “am I okay with waiting on inspiration?” “Did I leave any stone unturned creatively?” One thing that Cole said that I feel people should follow is having a routine in your life. It provides structure and it pushes you to continue to reach those goals time after time.

In Chapter Two: Father Time, Cole visits a place in his life where he found inspiration and his dedication to his craft. While in NYC, Cole stayed at home called Mohammad’s Crib. This is where he found structure and stability in working to develop his career. All the while, he’s a father. He set limits for himself as far as studio time to accommodate his family. Yet at the same time, he accommodated his career to get it to where he wanted it.

Chapter Three: The Climb Back talks all about remaining inspired. The message here is a statement Cole made. “When you don’t write for a while and you wait around for inspiration, it’ll never come”. This often resonates with individuals who want to work in the industry but wait around for someone to help inspire them and push them into it. If you want something bad enough, you’ll get to it. For example, Cole at times did not trust himself when he would write. That first line he’d write down, he would second guess it. You have to trust yourself and trust that the first line will lead you to the second line.

In Chapter Four: Applying Pressure, the main message is, when you put yourself in comfortable moments, you find out a lot about yourself. You find out that you're capable of rising.

Check out the documentary below.

J. Cole’s new album The Off-Season will be available on May 14th.