Rapper and producer J. Cole has announced the release of The Fall-Off Magazine, a 144-page editorial publication arriving ahead of his six-month The Fall-Off World Tour, which will span 15 countries and more than 50 cities.
The limited-edition print magazine is available through The Fall-Off.
Commissioned by Cole, the publication pays tribute to the tradition of hip-hop print journalism through original reporting, photography, artwork, and design. It explores the history, present, and future of rap music, business, and culture.
The magazine is led by Editor-in-Chief Bonsu Thompson, an award-winning writer and producer whose journalism career spans three decades across several of hip-hop’s most influential publications. Working alongside Publisher and Vice President of Creative Felton Brown, Thompson assembled a team of established and emerging journalists, photographers, illustrators, designers, and artists to produce what organizers describe as a lasting cultural artifact.
More than 60 creatives contributed to the publication, documenting the people, music, ideas, and conversations that have shaped hip-hop and continue to influence the culture worldwide.
“Like all essential creative by and for a culture, this collector’s edition arrives when most needed by its audience,” Thompson said. “Hip-hop journalism has somehow expanded, diversified, atrophied, and become amorphous all at once. So my aim was to deploy storytelling and the humanization of star power to educate the world on how Godly the craftsmen and innovation behind Hip-Hop commerce were, are, and will forever be. No wifi needed.”
Brown said the publication was created to capture a defining moment in the genre’s evolution while connecting generations of artists and fans.
“The Fall-Off Magazine documents a singular moment in time,” Brown said. “Like the sun, hip-hop has never stood still. Every generation has added to the culture, and this publication was built to create space for generations of old and new to commune in conversation with one another.”
“We built this publication because we believe context matters, conversation matters, critical thought matters, and original content matters. Hip-Hop has always mattered. Documenting this thing of ours to be consumed tangibly creates a cultural and educational experience that people can return to long after the moment has passed.”
Designed as a collector’s edition, The Fall-Off Magazine is being released in a limited print run with the goal of preserving and extending the legacy of print publications that have chronicled hip-hop’s evolution for decades.
