The Fall-Off tour has proven to be an extremely emotional experience for J. Cole. He’s previously admitted to his most recent album as the last chapter to his story as an artist. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s retiring like we all initially thought. Instead, anything that he does in hip-hop is all in exhibition rather than the story of his life.

“It’s just lyrical exercise,” Cole said of some of his other albums. “It’s me practicing to get to ‘The Fall-Off’ which is the continuation of the J. Cole story. Jermaine’s life story in the form of this J. Cole character.”

Consequently, performing his story for his biggest fans has led him to have some deeply emotional moments. Most recently, Cole performed in Cleveland, Ohio, where he performed “Love Yourz”, an all-time favorite for his audience. The crowd had to do the bulk of the singing because the North Carolina legend choked up and came to tears hearing them.

Many of his fans in the comments for the video shared similar sentiments about the 2014 Forest Hills Drive classic. “J Cole might be going through the toughest times rn fr,” one fan wrote. “Bro has been so emotional throughout the fall off tour.”

J. Cole started tearing up during an emotional performance of ‘Love Yourz’ in Cleveland last night pic.twitter.com/Rv81kC5Rbz

— NFR Podcast (@nfr_podcast) August 16, 2026

J. Cole Gets Emotional as the Crowd Sings One of His All-Time Best Songs

The 41-year-old MC getting emotional over “Love Yourz” makes sense given how closely he holds 2014 Forest Hills Drive to his heart. In a 2021 interview with SLAM Magazine, he admitted that releasing the album finally allowed him to relax for the first time in his life. Instead of stressing about his career and what next moves he needed to make, he allowed himself to slow down.

“It was after I got off tour, and I could breathe. I was like, ‘Damn,’” J. Cole sighed in relief. “For the first time, I felt comfortable in a good way. I allowed myself to just chill, watch TV, play video games. Simple s*** that n****s do, but I don’t do. S*** that before I wouldn’t allow myself to do, because it was like, ‘Yo, I got way bigger s*** to do, way bigger fish to fry.’ I wouldn’t even give myself the pass of watching a whole [TV] series.”

Once he finally unwound, then he was left with a nagging question: Now what? At the time, he seriously contemplated retirement but decided he still had more left to say.

“And when I asked that question, it was strictly from an ability standpoint, a fulfillment standpoint. Like, did you max out your skill? Did you max out your abilities, or did you leave s*** on the table in terms of pushing yourself? And at that time, I remember feeling like, ‘No, no, you didn’t.’ The truth was very clear,” J. Cole said.

(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

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Rapping is a competitive sport. Every artist worth their salt is hell-bent on proving why they’re the best rapper alive by releasing the best album or having the best verse on a given song—anything to prove that they’re in the upper echelon. For J. Cole in 2013, he was still cutting his teeth in the industry alongside the other two parts of the infamous Big 3. He had his fair share of hits, but he wasn’t quite Drake. There wasn’t an obvious good kid, m.A.A.d city in his discography.

So what did Cole do to get that extra bit of credibility? He went after one of the real legends in hip-hop. He moved the release date of his sophomore album, Born Sinner, to match Kanye West’s Yeezus. In an interview with Billboard, J. Cole talked about how learning Ye’s date only made him want to move up accordingly.

“Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I made one phone call to somebody that would know, just to make sure first. As soon as I got it confirmed, I was like, ‘Yo…’ The idea hit me instantly: ‘You got to go to that date,’” the North Carolina rapper said.

Additionally, he thought that if he stuck to his original release date, people would forget him in comparison to Ye’s blockbuster album.

J. Cole Tried to compete With Kanye West in 2013 with ‘Born Sinner’ vs ‘Yeezus’

“I’m not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It’d be like, ‘Oh, and J. Cole dropped too, a week later.’ Nah. I’m going to go see him on that date. He’s the greatest. So it’s like, I’m a competitor by nature, so it was instant. It wasn’t even a thought,” Cole continued. “It’s a definite statement about how I feel about my album, which is confident.”

Still, J. Cole insisted that it wasn’t a matter of arrogance. As excited as he was to battle for sales and quality, he remained humble and gave Kanye West his flowers. He just wanted to put his record in the same conversations, rather than be forgotten by history.

“At the same time, let’s not forget this is Kanye West. He bets 100, 1,000, whatever the perfect is. His track record is flawless. I’m only expecting an incredible album from him,” J. Cole said of Yeezus. “But I know what I have.”

Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage

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