Credit: J Cole / Raph Pour-Hashemi

J Cole has revealed that his apology to Kendrick Lamar inspired The Fall-Off to become a double album.

Cole dissed Kendrick on ‘7 Minute Drill’ in response to Kendrick’s ‘Like That’ verse, but he soon went back on his words by apologising and deleting the song altogether.

The North Carolina rapper is set to release his new project on February 6th, which became a double album as a result of the whole Kendrick saga.

While revealing a second album cover for The Fall-Off, he wrote on social media, “2 years ago, after the events that still feed the algorithm to this day, I became incredibly re-inspired, and the album slowly blossomed into a double disc as the concept expanded. I felt there should be an additional cover that represented that.”

He continued, “Something just as strong as the first, with my face on it, so when I look back in 20 years, I can see an image of who I was at the time I released the project I worked on for so long.”

Earlier this week, Cole addressed the apology for the first time on ‘Bronx Zoo Freestyle’, a track from his Birthday Blizzard ’26 mixtape.

Cole raps, “The top ain’t really what I thought it would be/ And so I jumped off and landed back at the bottom/ And restarted at a level where I wasn’t regarded as much/ Just to climb past them again and tell ’em all to keep up.”

He adds, “I used to be top seed/ Apology dropped me way out of the top three/ No problem, I’m probably my best when they doubt me/ Watch me, watch me.”

Cole initially apologised at his Dreamville Festival, admitting he felt “terrible” about dissing Kendrick.

“I just wanna come up here and publicly be like, bruh, that was the lamest, goofiest shit,” he said. “And I say all that to say, it made me feel like 10 years ago when I was moving incorrectly, and I pray that god will line me back up on my purpose and my path. I pray that my n*gga didn’t feel no way.”