We’re on the way. This morning, from 10am to noon, IAHHM will be in the room at Fayetteville State University for The Fall-Off Magazine Conversation Live, a sit-down with the creative team behind J. Cole’s The Fall Off magazine. It’s one more piece of a day that already has the Fall-Off Tour closing at Crown Coliseum tonight and the Indie 5000 sneaker launching in the same city.
What The Fall Off actually is
The Fall Off is a 144-page print magazine Cole released this past July, built with more than 60 writers, photographers, illustrators, designers and artists. Lauryn Hill, JID, GloRilla and Larry June are among the contributors. It’s pitched as an ode to the spirit of the rap magazines that shaped generations: a space for rap’s history, its present and where it’s headed. Physical copies have been sold in Charlotte, with online orders through thefalloff.com.
Why a print magazine in 2026
The magazine wasn’t a side project. It kicked off the rollout for The Fall-Off and the tour behind it. Cole led with a physical object built around writing and photography, not a single or a trailer, before any of the more conventional rollout beats.
Who’s in the room
Two people directly behind the magazine’s pages are the featured panelists: Felton Brown, The Fall-Off Magazine’s creative director, and Walter C. Barnett, a Methodist University graduate and art director for The Fall-Off Magazine, Dreamer and Dreamville. Rakeem “Keem” Jones of Keem Jones Content Collection, whose Underground Keem page first put this on our radar, is billed as host. This isn’t a general hip-hop panel booked to talk around the project. It’s the people who actually built it, in Fayetteville, talking about Cole’s Fayetteville roots, the magazine’s creative process and hometown storytelling.
Where it’s happening
The Fall-Off Magazine Conversation Live runs today, Wednesday, September 23, from 10am to noon at Seabrook Auditorium on Fayetteville State University’s campus, 1200 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, NC 28301. Fayetteville State is presenting it with the Matriculation Institute Student Success Academy and Dreamville. Seating is limited, and FSU asked students and the public to register ahead of time.
What to expect
With two of the magazine’s key creatives on stage, this should be less a general Q&A and more an actual walkthrough of how The Fall Off got made: the writing, the photography and the design choices, straight from the people who made them. We’ll be back with a full recap of what was said.
One more Fayetteville coincidence
A magazine rollout, a sneaker launch and a tour finale, all landing on the same city on the same day, isn’t really a coincidence at this point. It’s the pattern Cole has run his entire career. Our coverage of the Indie 5000, out now, is here, and our full Fall-Off Tour finale coverage has everything else tied to tonight’s show.
Pingback: J. Cole Just Announced His Indie 5000 Sneaker Drops Tomorrow — In Fayetteville * IAMHIPHOPMAG