J. Cole Announces ‘The Off-Season Tour’ & Return Of Dreamville Fest

“The Off-Season Tour” is named after the acclaimed rapper’s sixth studio album, which was released in May via his Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records. 

21 Savage and Morray contributed guest vocals to the track “My Life.” Other featured artists on the album include Lil Baby, Bas and 6lack. 

A review of the LP from Variety declares that J. Cole “is very much on his game.” 

“Stripped down to an at once polished and grimy mixture of soul samples, seizuring trap hi-hats and boom-bap drums, Cole offers, amid some moments of grave contemplation, a kind of mixtape-energy record of lyrical exercises and bangers. In its looseness, the album — his most economical and wholly consistent one thus far — feels like a serrated jolt, a brazen and convincing statement from the rapper of his all-time status as an MC,” Variety’s Brandon Yu writes. 

The accompanying 17-city tour consists of arena gigs from coast to coast, starting with a Sept. 24 show at FTX Arena in Miami. Stops include Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Chicago’s United Center, Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, Denver’s Ball Arena and Southern California’s The Forum.

Presales start Wednesday, June 23, followed by the general onsale Friday, June 25 at 10 a.m. local time via dreamville.com.

J. Cole also broke the news that his Dreamville Festival is returning in April 2022.  

The inaugural Dreamville Fest took place in April 2019 at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, N.C., after Hurricane Florence postponed the event from September 2018.  The event welcomed more than 40,000 attendees and featured lots of artists from J. Cole’s Dreamville label like Bas, Cozz, Ari Lennox, J.I.D., Lute, Omen, and Earthgang, as well as SZA, Big Sean, 21 Savage, 6lack, Nelly, Teyana Taylor, and Rapsody. The festival was supposed to stage its second edition in Raleigh in April 2020 before COVID-19 brought live shows to a halt. 

Fans are encouraged to sign up via at dreamvillefest.com for a chance to get 2022 Dreamville tickets first.

Boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar for J. Cole include a July 4, 2019, show at Avant Gardner in Brooklyn, N.Y., that sold 5,263 tickets and grossed $410,997. In October 2018 he played Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., selling 11,108 tickets and grossing more than $1 million.

J. Cole is set to headline Rolling Loud California at NOS Event Center in San Bernardino on Dec. 11. Kid Cudi headlines Friday and Future takes the stage on Sunday.