Dreamville Creatives Bring Industry Insights to Fayetteville State Students
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The creative minds behind Fayetteville native J. Cole’s The Fall-Off Magazine brought their industry experience to Fayetteville State University Sept. 23, giving students access to professionals whose work helped shape one of hip-hop’s most recognizable brands.
The event, The Fall-Off Magazine Conversation Live, brought Felton Brown, vice president of creative services for Dreamville Ventures, and Walter C. Barnett, art director for The Fall-Off Magazine, to Seabrook Auditorium to discuss creative careers, professional relationships and the storytelling behind a nationally recognized entertainment brand.
Rakeem Jones, a spring 2026 FSU graduate, hosted the conversation, giving aspiring communicators and other students a chance to learn from professionals at the intersection of media and entertainment.
Learning From the People Behind the Work
The limited-edition magazine, developed in connection with Cole’s The Fall-Off project, brings together writers, photographers, and artists to explore hip-hop’s cultural influence through original storytelling and visual design.
Brown and Barnett shared how the publication developed over several years, giving students insight into the creative decisions and collaborative relationships needed to produce a major editorial project.
Brown explained that Cole’s established audience gave the team the freedom to invest time in developing the publication.
“We’re blessed to be a part of something where we’re allowed to take our time to really like figure out creativity,” Brown said.
The discussion also explored Fayetteville’s influence on the magazine’s visual identity. The team returned to the city to photograph locations tied to Cole’s upbringing, presenting familiar surroundings with a fresh creative perspective.
For students interested in communications and related fields, the event offered a firsthand look at how storytelling, design and collaboration translate into work reaching audiences nationwide.
Connecting Students With Industry Experience
Roderick T. Heath, Ed.D., assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students, said the event also helped students connect with the cultural significance of the community surrounding their university.
Heath represented FSU’s Matriculation Institute, a student retention initiative that helped bring the conversation to campus in collaboration with Dreamville and the university’s Department of Communication, Languages and Cultures.
“The reason we wanted to bring this here today is that this is a part of history, and [J. Cole] has told stories of the South that the world needed to hear,” Heath said.
For Quinn Bowens, a freshman pre-nursing student from Virginia, the event introduced her to a connection she did not know existed.
“Before applying to Fayetteville State, I did not know J. Cole was from Fayetteville,” Bowens said.
Bowens said learning about the years invested in the publication gave her greater appreciation for the dedication behind Cole’s creative work.
The event demonstrated how FSU can draw on Fayetteville’s cultural influence and professional connections to create learning opportunities beyond traditional classroom instruction. By bringing the people behind nationally recognized creative projects directly to campus, the university gave students access to industry perspectives, career advice, and relationships that can inform their professional journeys.