On “1 0 0 . m i l,” J. Cole speaks about continuing to master his craft, improving his lyricism, production, and overall sound regardless of the success he has already achieved. This corroborates a line from his December 2016 track, “False Prophets”:

I hear my old shit and know I can top it.

Cole touched on the idea of reaching your peak in the 2021 documentary for the album, titled Applying Pressure:

If this is as high as you ever got… from a skill level, like, have you wrote your best song? Did you leave no stone unturned, creatively? And when I thought about that feeling, I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not cool with that.’