20 October 2026
Performing in London for the first time in almost a decade, J. Cole wasted no time in asserting himself as one of the greatest rappers of his generation. After fellow Dreamvillian Mick Jenkins warmed up the crowd, Cole started his performance in the bleachers, effortlessly crooning ’39 Intro’ in the midst of his audience before making his way to centre stage.
As part of The Fall-Off Tour, the North Carolina native’s most recent album of the same name was given a fair chunk of the setlist. For an artist with such an enduring legacy, this is always a risky move, yet his fanbase embraced his latest work with open arms.
Tracks like ‘Poor Thang’, ‘WHO TF IZ U’, and ‘Bombs In The Ville/Hit The Gas’ in particular resonated with a frenzied audience. It is testament to Cole’s artistry that so many were spitting his bars back to him word for word given his penchant for technical lyricism. This was perhaps most evident during the performance of his verse on ‘Johnny P’s Caddy’, where he asked an audience member singled out by the stage camera to rap along, executing it to perfection.
There was however still enough room for the hits. Cole praised the London crowd for being so knowledgeable and showing love to him since her first toured here, before diving into a host of tracks from ‘Cole World’ and ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’. ‘Work Out’ got the whole of the O2 singing, while ‘Wet Dreamz’ and ‘G.O.M.D’ almost took the roof off.
The show reached its emotional peak with ‘Love Yourz’, before the pinnacle track ‘No Role Modelz’ drew the best reaction of the night. To keep the set list symmetrical, Cole rounded things off with another track from The Fall-Off, ‘Quik Stop’, bookmarking the show nicely. At this stage of his career, there isn’t much that this artist has to prove, but J. Cole went above and beyond on Monday, bringing a slice of The Ville to south-east London.