J. Cole broke the silence about his upcoming album, but the news is quite vague: “No date for the album yet, taking my time, still finishing…,” he wrote on Twitter. However, the announcement was regarding more exciting news–the release of two brand new songs, namely “The Climb Back” and “Lion King on Ice.” And both songs are due tomorrow, July 22, 2020.
There have been several rumors of J. Cole’s 2020 album ‘The Fall Off’ circulating around the vines in the last few months. Ever since “Snow On tha Bluff” single released last month, speculations have been growing on the album.
“The Climb Back” is a motivational anthem about J. Cole’s journey in rap music and how his love for the craft made him one of the best in the game. What makes it even more worth is all the struggles of past and present that he had to overcome to reach the zenith.
Listen to “The Climb Back” by J. Cole
“The Climb Back” Lyrics Meaning & Song Review
On the chorus of the song, J. Cole raps about how all loose ends tie in this circle of life. What you saw, you shall reap. The amount of effort you put into your work, you will get in return. This is why Cole’s paycheques have seven figures to the left of the decimal point.
J. Cole also touches on the deaths of many artists around him, especially the young ones. His past experiences and these deaths have scarred him beyond repair. So it is natural that he sways towards pills for pain relief. He references ‘blue moon’ which is slang for 30mg pill of oxycodone and 1mg pill of Xanax, for both pills are blue in color.
J. Cole talks about his ‘friends’ who are there just to feed off of his clout. He feels as if these friends are the type to crash in your couch and eat all your food too. He draws an example from his life, where he helped a ‘friend’ and the more he helped, the more his friend got comfortable with the situation. The friend started feeling like he deserved the help, and even worse he was jealous of everything Cole had.
J. Cole slaps back at the popular lyrics and annotations platform Genius for misinterpreting his songs and lyrics. However, it is unlikely that this is the fault of the website itself, as the annotations are provided by its members–the community, or even the general public.
Although many people feed off of artists and their work, the bitter truth is that the real people, struggling on the street, are becoming worse off each passing day. J. Cole refers to this as “dimin’ and nickelin'” as opposed to leechers “shinin'” and growing “diamonds.”
On the outro of “The Climb Back,” J. Cole raises some serious questions about the security of minority races in the world, especially The USA. He questions why we don’t have a homicide hotline which his people would call when all hell breakd lose on them for no reason at all.
Let us hear what you think about this track in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics and further meaning breakdown on Genius.