Major, major week for Roc Nation artist, J. Cole. The 29 year old rapper’s new album – 2014 Forest Hills – dethroned Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’, taking the number one spot (his third album in a row to do so). Looks like its really a ‘Cole Winter.’ More after the jump.
Jermaine Lamarr Cole aka J. Cole has another Number 1 album on his hands. It was announced today that his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, topped the Billboard 200 chart, selling 353,538 copies in its first week. The units moved knocked reigning queen, Taylor Swift and her ‘1989’ album out of the top spot and to add more good news to the party, Cole’s final tally comes to 371,228 now that Billboard also includes streaming services in their accounting mix.
This is his third album to hit the top spot; the first was Cole World: The Sideline Story (2o11) which debuted at Number 1 with 218,000 units sold and his second album, Born Sinner, hit number one in its third week, with 297,000 units moved.
Although his album wasn’t as much a surprise as Beyonce‘s big album drop last December, J. Cole did go about releasing Forest Hills in a rather non-traditional way. First, he only announced the album three weeks ago. Second, he didn’t release any singles for the radio, and he still hasn’t done any live performances of any of the songs on the album even though its been out for days now. (His one live performance, the one from Letterman, was of “Be Free” which isn’t on the album).
What did he have to say when the news hit about Forest Hills success?
The #'s are humbling. It's a win for all artists and fans and a clear message to the industry. No singles no features. Stop serving trash
— J. Cole (@JColeNC) December 17, 2014
Nice.
