By Daniel Paiz

Jermaine Cole has been rapping for a couple of decades now. There have been several tours across this country and throughout the world. Five years since “The Offseason Tour” made a stop in Denver in the Fall of 2021, the Fayetteville, North Carolina wordsmith has returned to the Mile High City.

Whether you were someone enamored with Forest Hills Drive or Born Sinner, or really excited about his newest album, Cole went through his own gauntlet of hits and deep album cuts.

Ball Arena was sold out, and there were fans of both J Cole and his label, Dreamville, in attendance. The night didn’t start with the revered emcee. Instead, things began on the radio, in a manner of speaking.

Openers

The openers for this tour are being dubbed as “Dreamville Radio”. A few different Dreamville acts warm up the stage for their label head honcho. Bas was the last act to perform on stage before the headliner, and he set the pace just right.

Headliner

Cole is a talented showrunner and tonight was no different. I was uncertain as to whether or not he would continue his opening song trend, and he did. If you have not checked on previous tour stops online, this headliner decides to find his way into the crowd with minimal detection. He then starts his opening song in the stands, next to seemingly unwary concert goers. Fans dap him up, the crowd slowly parts after getting rushed selfies, and the man arrives onstage by the end of track one.

Personally, this seems like a bold and slightly dangerous decision, due to security being vastly outnumbered in this situation. But because Cole seems to still be a man of the people, he has not encountered any majorly negative interactions. To be able to walk amongst the crowd and literally meet people where they are is not something every artist can do. To have that self-awareness that Cole accepts he is just another person and doesn’t need to be treated vastly differently is refreshing.

J Cole presents an honesty and vulnerability to the crowd in his shows.

This has been the case since I’ve experienced his shows at the Fox Theater in Boulder, Red Rocks in Morrison, and previously at Ball Arena in Denver. Regardless of the venue size, the shows feel almost intimate. Cole shares his thoughts, feelings, and appreciation throughout the show. Sure, the calling of *insert present city here* a staple is a concert tactic much like stating which side of the venue is the loudest. But it’s done in a way that feels like it just might be different than the other venues.

What really added to the evening as well were the stage and light production complimenting the music. The lights were on point and utilized in a variety of different ways. As Cole worked through his first few songs, the light patterns gave a grand hall-like appearance to the venue floor leading up to the Southern styled house on stage. The house was reminiscent of houses in North Carolina, which is to stay big despite a small-town rustic feel to it. The lights were then formatted in a way that appeared to be a candle-shape of sorts over the crowd; it was staged during a song that went over the tragic and unexpected deaths of folks, too. Little bits of attention to detail take a show from really good to top-tier storytelling in multiple ways at once.

There were of course the standards for Cole: “She Knows”, “Can’t Get Enough”, and “Wet Dreamz” had the crowd grooving and singing along word for word. “Middle Child”, “Love Yourz”, and “No Role Modelz” had the crowd both hype yet reflective. Every song had someone rapping along word for word. Cole appreciated it, the crowd bonded over it, and the venue rattled like a bass-heavy trunk along the interstate.

There were, however, a few gems amongst the bouquet of glimmering jams that stood out for a slightly different reason.

Hidden Gems

Cole is supremely talented at doing two things at once. Throughout the course of his set, he switched from songs on his latest album, The Fall Off, to noted jams ranging across his discography. However, he had a few moments where he made a claim that wasn’t what it seemed on the surface level.

Two tracks come to mind when Cole said he wanted to perform these songs for selfish reasons. One adamant point in particular stuck out, where he shared that when he looks back at this time in his life, he can relish the memory of performing these songs to a sold-out crowd. What makes it slightly deeper is the double entendre-ness of what he’s doing: he might be performing for himself, but he’s also creating concert memories that will define this tour.

“2Face” from Friday Night Lights and “Quik Stop” from The Fall Off are those two album cuts Cole performed. Both tracks induce reflective storytelling throughout each verse delivered by Fayetteville’s own. There’s a fair number of lines to dig into, but they grasp your attention and don’t let go. I kept hanging onto every single word, like a comic panel pulling me along for the ride. Album cuts are meant to do this, but when performing these live and still getting similar responses to the hit records–that’s impressive. Not a lot of emcees can do that.

Those who got to experience this 2026 tour stop will be revisiting this show in their heads for years to come.

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PS: The fourth slide above is Cole discussing his appreciation of fans showing up, and his “selfish” reasoning to perform certain songs that are album cuts.