J.Cole ‘2014 Forest Hills Drive’ Tops Charts
December 16, 2014 @ 5:31 PM EST
News
3Peat.
Jermaine’s back on top. Seven days after the release of his junior set 2014 Forest Hills Drive, Cole will take home the gold medal for the third time (Cold World: The Sideline Story, Born Sinner). According to HDD, he moved an estimated 361,120 copies. Purchase the album here.
UPDATE: Finally tally: 371,228. (17,690 from streams)
Your number’s wrong. HDD stated that he sold 361,120 copies.
$361,120 based of authenticity, no bulllshit single and no gimmicks.
Cole the one and only, since sade lool.
#realmusic
Cole drops classics. If youre into MIGUEL or FRANK OCEAN you guys should check my guy out http://www.soundcloud.com/love_at_first_sound/finewithoutyou
my neighbor’s .. go to this web-site ,.,View here
FOH with this plague
FUCK YOUR NEIGHBORS AUNT NIGGA
Word! No features no nothing. Cole for the win
With respects to diminishing returns, both his rapping and his production seems to be worse than ever before. J. Cole compares himself to Rakim before feebly namedropping five people and declaring that he’s God in his typical rhyme-a-word-with-itself-ness: “You ain’t the God / Nigga, Cole the God”.
If the Truly Yours mixtapes are any indication, J. Cole is at his best when he’s not trying to be the best. On those EPs, there was no falling back on ‘90s nostalgia by jumping on famous samples (“Villuminati” and “LAnd of the Snakes”) or paying tribute to the greats (“Let Nas Down”). Instead, it was just good raps over good beats. perhaps this was going to be an artistic statement whereas his previous two albums were mildly enjoyable bits of pop rap that mostly didn’t pop at all.
If I’ve seemed unduly harsh on J. Cole, it’s because I know he can do better. I long for him to stop relying on rhyming the same word with itself, i.e. most of the second verse on “G.O.M.D.”.
and with that said.
J.coles album fucking sucks, it’s worst then the last which was worst then the last. bring that friday night lights “farewell” “before i’m gone” j.cole – blank bored stare the entire time listening to this album.
removed my headphones and threw them down, was so pissed after listening to this, expected so much more. the BEATS SUCCKKK YO. audio valium. cringeworthy singing, laziest hooks, lamest rhymes and patterns, his doing his best eminem , shouting loud and showing us how angry he is with nothing to say. abc rhyme patterns just rhyming the end of every sentence —–cat, —–hat, ——-sat.
then his like oh fuck people arguing over who’s the king everyones the king, that doesn’t matter. then the next track his like fuck you i’m the king of this. then white people snatched the sound. does he know him and drake are half white with with white mothers who raised them…white? smh.
The Warm up and friday night lights are the only projects you need from this guy. he just seems pissed his realised his nowhere near the caliber of talent required to take the throne (nowhere even close to drake or kendricks talent and they in turn are nowhere close to the talent of the 90s cats like nas, big pun, jay, pac, eminem, raekwon, andree 3000 in their prime – not even close) so now it’s fuck the throne fuck being the best. well better to hate what you can’t have cole. this guy is a hypocrite he seems more interested in being the best then making the best records or best rhymes – his trying to be personal like kendricks good kid mad city but he was a better rapper when he told other peoples stories and connected himself to them. friday night lights is what this album is trying to be but check out friday night lights check out – farewell and you you’ll find that there isn’t one song on this new album that captures him reminiscing as well, as interesting, on as dope a beat with as dope a flow. farewell, before i’m gone, 2 face, the autograph, head buss, rise above, see world, all these songs from his mix tapes shit all over anything on this album. the worst song on friday night lights would be the best song on this album. get this guy off the stage his not even a contender anymore. memphis bleak 2.0.
THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG .. ITS JUST A SONG – HE’S BORN ON THE SAME DAY AS RAKIM – AS A LYRICIST HE AINT GONNA LEAVE THAT OUT
You really took the time to write this bullshit??? Lol
Guess what your opinion is worthless considering he sold big boy numbers and I doubt you listened to the album enough to really give an unbiased opinion, you def hatin
shut the fuck up
Cole is the only rapper of his generation that write, rap,sing, and produce his album
No other artist of his generation (drake, kendrick) does that
Kendrick went platinum because of Dr. Dre and drake has 40 to produce for him
Also j cole doesn’t even ask jay z for help
Y’all got to give him the credit he deserve
Yes Jay Z let Cole do his own thing, and that is the best thing Jay can do for him. Let him grow on his own
Also: Richard Ross did 74K his first week, apparently that didn’t merit a post
& GKMC did 242,000 back in 2012
so! marshall mathers lp 2 did 792,000 its first week
*stan alert*
Lyrics sell. Period. EVERYBODY ELSE WILL & SHOULD SUFFER.
#2014FHD #TIMELESS
lmao if you really believe this cat went number one and actually believe these numbers, i feel bad for you…
Impressive
Oh shit I’m shocked.
Congrats! Fayettenam Finest
This is for Mac Diesel! Do you notice the double meaning in just about every song J Cole does? In my opinion, his bars & verses are overlooked! Goes over the head! His skills are natural! , which is why his flow comes off so smooth. IT’S FROM THE HEART, however Cole knows how to play the game well (rap game) dodging the normal pitfalls and okedok<<typo some rappers fall into. He gives you both worlds while still being relatable. If I may add………no matter how hard Kendrick flows I always prefer J Cole, though I am a Kendrick fan not a groupie! Anyone care to elaborate?
Chicken little must be happy
fuck you shocked about nunez? you wanna know whats shocking? IM SHOCKED YOU HAVENT BEEN DEPORTED YET YOU WORTHLESS IN THE WINTER TOMATO AND ORANGE GROWING PIECE OF SHIT
you perfectly happy spending you’re whole life not working and never having NOTHING, abusing the welfare system and get away with it. we need to have harsher penalties and have them enforced on those who abuse the systems..luckyp i’m pretty sure you been on welfare all your life.
where’d you steal this comment from juan?
fuck you and juan.
The most boring rapper in America is by far the highest-selling rapper. The irony is too strong.
Hate all you want but very few in the game can pull this off.
Congrats to Cole on a great album and great sales.
whats boring is all these famous rappers making songs about selling cocaine and being gangsters over the same corny beats with the same features as everyone else. the masses are starting to smarten up from the looks of these sales.
The whole year overall was boring in terms of Hip Hop albums. Who was leading in sells before Cole? Iggy Azalea and as far as straight up Hip Hop? Id put Cyhi’s Black Hystori project over ever album this year because bar for bar he out rapped everybody including Cole. Too bad it was a mixtape and not an album but artistically aint no albums this year really that dope and neither is the struggle singing jingles of this album from Cole.
don’t think so. but it’s your opinion. Cyhi is still relatively unknown and if he had dropped a classic mixtape like cole, drake, and others have in the past, with his label backing, Cyhi would have made a dent. He has not.
Cyhi mixtape is better then Cole’s album period. Lyrically, conceptually, musically etc…
not! nice try though
No he slaughtered Cole in terms of bars and concepts period. Now if you wanna talk about struggle singing? Cole did that better but Cyhi wasn’t singing.
Props on admitting your mistake & I agree CyHi is criminally slept on as a lyricist, his Huey remix with Royce and Joell opened my eyes (and I don’t even fuck with them either). One thing I’ve been dying to see someone say about this Cole album…..he totally bit the title & concept of Hello from TI off the King album. Exact same sentiments, subject matter & song title….and the TI version was harder
Again, my comments aint really an attack against the market performance of Cole’s album (not saying thats what your implying), again I hope Cole’s album goes platinum… My comments has more to do with the overall albums this year. How many albums came out that a large number of people really wanted to actually support this year? Not many
I actually agree with your first post, no need to clarify homie. Happy for him & his sales just don’t think it was a watershed moment for hip hop or anything. A lot of people are hyping this album like it being a 7 or 8/10 is bad
Hardly
Iggy sold 52k her first week. You guys should really Google your “facts” before they fall out of your ass.
Thats true and Ross and Schoolboy Q also sold more then her first week along with several other rappers. I worded my comment badly, however my comment in regards to Iggy Azalea is more a reflection of what the climate is in Hip Hop that this album from Cole is competing with… That along with the fact her album is almost gold at this point. The bar artistically is at a all time LOW. Overall there is not many dope albums commercially this year.
The “fact” still remains that Iggy is his only real competition thus far in sells this year. You could throw Ross in there but thats about it so far.
damn, i forgot about cyhi project. that shit was slapping too. fuck.
Word. Shit was BARS on BARS on BARS and they was dope songs. COMEONSON
Exactly…. Prime example of being yourself
And it leaked .. Props
He has a cult like following
Flow dumber than your projections, this makes (3 times) I’ve doubled what you expected.
Cole World
Damn that’s crazy, anybody think Kendrick doin 400,000?
Billboard projecting that Kendrick will do 500k+.
Kendrick aint got a album coming out and yall already talking about sales
Know your role and shut your mouth ain’t nobody need ur input nigga
Yes. Market research. Companies and industries do this all the time. Billboard and HDD wrote about it.
This kills me about the Kendrick followers. Enjoy the moment(s) let him live.
O shit that’s wassup
link? I like articles about projections
Kendrick is going to do huge numbers first week. minimum 500k. My guess is 700k + He has crossed over crazy while still being authentic. The perfect storm and the anticipation has been building.
o shit, I hope your right, Im def. copping
Yap…. Interscope will do him right…
cole’s next album will be on interscope as well.
nobody gives a fuck about kendrick right now. let cole enjoy this moment! we all up here in agreements that he’s preserving the culture, FOH with the kendrick talk. Plus I AM is some BULLSHIT
wrong, ppl been waiting on kendrick
Nigga this is a discussion board how the fuck am I taking away from Coles “moment” its one comment on a rap radar post, u a dick rider bruh, dont even comment back trying to deny it
FOH BOY! nigga cock gobbling so much you can’t even let cole shine on his own post without bringing kendrick in the convo
Good day for Hip Hop. Happy for Jermaine! Cole World
Cole solidified his status as one of the greats of this new generation. It’s clear now
Yessir! Cole with the 3peat. Can’t wait for the tour
Congrats to J. Cole.
they say Nicki going to sell 150-60k first week and she had all the promotion…singles…image you could ask for …..damn
160k is a lot nowadays. her 2nd album did 40k first week.nicki ain’t had a hit record since hr first album. all that stripper booty stuff and being on tv shows is good but for the style of artist she is she needs hits to survive. 160k is really good for her taking that into account.
Her 2nd album did 253k.
361K after announcing it three weeks ago with no single, no pushbacks, no gimmicks, no radio hits, no big features on the radio. I’m proud of the bul Cole…. Full disclaimer, I actually did preorder the album and got my Lady to do the same thing lol
I’m proud of Cole as a fan. Happy for him as a hip hop head (NOBODY sells anymore) but honestly as both of those I’m also kind of curious how the hell that happened? It’s a really good album but it’s not a classic, doesn’t have any songs that belong on the radio, & he only announced it a few weeks ago.
Oh and I’m no Drake fan but NWTS did 658,000 first week for the record.
I think it’s a good body of work and there aren’t any radio hits on it. I assumed that the 361K was mainly all core fans.
Drake sold 658K but he gave us six free songs (Girls love B, No New Friends, 5am in Toronto, Versace, Jodeci Remix, Motion) before his album dropped to build up that anticipation plus he had SFTB on heavy rotation. J. Cole did it off of an Instagram post and Twitter announcement… Not to take away from Drake but what Cole did was pretty impressive
not to mention Drake had like 8 singles off Take Care
Cole’s release will actually impact the industry in a very positive way
Drake is has same star power of a Jayz or Wayne meaning his albums will sell no matter what, Drake don’t need to put out free songs or mixtapes because Drake is the leader right now when it comes to hits and sales. People anticipate when he drop his albums.
drake the leader my ass! eminem last album sold 792,00 first week!mmlp2
Bruh Em is goat we all know that but I was talking about new school leaders sir. Yes Drake is the leader when it comes to that I was talking about sales.
chill
Nobody seems to want to mention Cole didn’t SELL that many, they included streams in the figure & that wasn’t an element of RIAA’s stats when Drake’s last album dropped. Not trying to boost Drake but Cole’s numbers are inflated by a new system that hasn’t been perfected yet, & with respect to his limited marketing approach he still only did half Drake’s numbers.
That 361k number doesn’t include streams and single sales. Those are album sales only. The streams boost it to maybe 375k according to HitsDailyDouble.
So Cole is on the rise…
You’re actually worng. These figures are pure album sells which is 371,228 to date but with streaming its 10,984,761. You can check this info out on HipHopDx tho:
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.31788/title.hip-hop-album-sales-j-cole-eminem-prhyme
Thanks for the info. He still did half Drake’s numbers but obviously his numbers are impressive in their own right.
What Cole did really wasn’t impressive at all to be honest. Just think about it, if one of your fav artist just announced he was dropping an album in a week and you haven’t heard a single or anything before that, wouldn’t you be hype as hell to buy that album? Hell, even pre order it cause of the mystery surrounding the album? That right there is a marketing plan.
I agree with your logic but to say it “wasn’t that impressive” is a reach. He almost doubled the next highest 1st week sales from a rapper on the year, sure his strategy worked well but you’re being a little dismissive…and I didn’t even think Cole’s album was that great. Just saying.
Well you can’t compare Drake to J.cole tho I mean Drake is another level of fame anything Drake put out is a hit.
Chill
That’s true that they can’t be compared since Drake’s star power is higher than J. Cole’s. But I think that there’s more than one leader of this new school class. just like last generation had Pac, biggie, Jay-Z and Nas this generation has drake, Kendrick, and Cole (not to mention the leaders that were in between generations: Yeezy, Em, Wayne, and 50)…
eminem outsold all these niggas this time last year!mmlp2 sold 792,000 first week.stop ignoring the white boy
*stan alert*
Those numbers are highly suspicious, Cole and Roc Nation must have bought at least 100k of those.
Ridiculous. Roc Nation is cheap and doesn’t spend money on its’ artists. All of a sudden they’re spending money, buying 100k copies now?
How much money have they spent on Cole then? Regardless they still do what they have to do for the artists they represent. Does that take anything away from Cole? Not really but lets not act like Cole is some underground artist selling records show to show in the streets without any connections to the industry cause before his first album came out he was already on two tours, one with JAYZ and the other with Drake and Rhianna… I mean, you pretty much at the height of Hip Pop from there.
that’s got nothing to do with my response to @Albert. Roc Nation didn’t buy 100k copies.
You’re coming from a different angle, talking about something else.
Its all good. I would say Cole sold a bunch of albums first week to his core audience so the sells was fair and square but id also say look at the Hip Hop albums overall this year? Its not like its been a great year of Hip Hop albums or even a good one for that matter so not only is his core fanbase gonna support but whats the alternative? There aint no dope album albums out here, especially on a commercial level. I mean what else were people supposed to buy? Hood Billionaire? I dont think so
Didn’t lecrae drop a dope album. I haven’t listened to dude yet but I heard he sold a bunch. And Prhyme might have better bars but cole artistically had a better album.
Having better bars is saying alot…. and again you can count on one hand the Hip Hop albums released this year with a high level of commercial sells potential. As far as lyric driven Hip Hop goes? There was no competition for Cole out there in the market. The closest you can get to that all year is Rick Ross and its not like he’s known for selling alot either.
But it’s like saying Jada has a better album than kanye. Jada probably going to have decent songs and better bars but kanye artistically going to make a greater album.
Cole aint as nice as Kanye though. Musically Kanye is far better then Cole so its like saying Jada has better bars then Cole and yes that would mean his album is also better. Even leaning on the musical aspect of Cole’s music isnt really a plus either cause his beats aint that dope.
It’s all subjective at the end of the day man. With the way he went about this project and the numbers that followed you can’t justify that he shouldn’t be getting the praise he is getting
I don’t have to justify reasons why he shouldn’t get praised, especially after I said I hope his album goes platinum. However my comment to you is in response to your comment about bars. If someone as better bars then someone else well thats a sign that their music is better. Is it a definitive aspect that makes it better? NO but better is better. Now if you wanna talk music? Its not like Dj Premier is wack or something cause I think he pretty much as proven his ability already. The beats on Cole’s album aint better then the beats on PRhyme and neither are his rhymes. What Cole did was sing his way back into the hearts of his very soft crossover R&B Pop fanbase which is fine with me.
The PRhyme album also came out but I don’t think Royce and Premier are exactly in a commercial lane. I know who had the better album though…
cole did. that’s easy.
No, Cole was singing more then Drake on Take Care with worse beats…
i think u should listen to the album. phryme is cool but it’s old school retro. we need to move forward.
Its still a better album. Whether you think its new or old don’t make a difference if its still a better album and lets not act like Cole’s shit sounded futuristic or progressive either cause it did not.
no label buys records in that amount. that’s a myth. Why would they spend $1,000,000 dollars buying 100,000 albums in addition to advance, recording fund, sample clearance fees, and promo. It’s ignorant to think a label in 2014 add a million dollars to the hole for they are already in.
Cole is known for buying albums though, there is a video of him from last year buying all of a stores copies of Born Sinner.
buying a rack of cd’s from a store doesn’t equate to 100k copies bought.
He bought 10 CDs, smh.
He went to like one store. You need to do a little more thinking before posting things like this… lol smh
Jay-Z bought 348K LOL
so your saying Roc nation spent $3.5 million dollars buying album copies. Pretty ignorant
V. ignorant…and I usually gently entertain these “the label bought X amount of albums” arguments but that was clearly a joke lol
Must be a young thug fan.
Yo I think he’s just joking… js
No features…Cole World. He told Angie they’re wrong every time with their numbers and boy was he right
Every album he drops sells more first weeks than the last. He feeds his fans the right way. Look at @rikkimaa twitter
I bought a physical, even though I got Beats Music. Great album, start to finish.
J ALBUM ItS DOPE ITS NOT THE GREATEST ALBUM I HAVE EVER HEARD I CAN ADMIT ITS BETTER THEN A LOT OF ALBUMS OUT THERE RIGHT NOW
no album can be the greatest album in just one listen.
i listen to it about three times and by todays standards its not skipping through tracks because thats what todays rap albums are about
Definitely a great day for hip hop, Cole needs no radio bullshit sounding hit, and for the record, Cole will run laps lyrically around your favorite rapper. Congrats again, #ColeWorld
Didnt even have to sell his soul. God is on his side im convinced.
yo this nigga just won 2014 without trying lol thats how you know the music is reaching people
Umm he recorded a whole album, I’m pretty sure he “tried”
haha this album sucks ass who cares about record sales
your favorite rapper cares about sales. Anyone and everyone who makes music cares. They’re liars if they say they don’t.
It really does suck
Wow. I can’t believe that many people supported such a mediocre project. No bars. No strong story telling. Subpar production. I like J. Cole, but I found this project to be very disappointing.
No bars? FireSquad. No strong story telling? 03 Adolescence, Wet Dreamz Subpar Production? G.O.M.D, Love Yourz. Not sure if you even listened.
The instrumentation on St. tropez is one of the best Cole has put together. He barely leaned on samples this album and had his beats progressed through the track. These idiots just want something to complain about.
HE BARELY LEANED ON SAMPLES?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Only 3 songs on the album don’t feature a sample, you clearly just want to be the idiot in the discussion calling other people “idiots”
It didn’t matter how dope or wack the album is. His core fans are going to buy it as long as he rap from the heart and don’t sell out. Now after the first week is where it gets tricky
Logic is probably your favorite rapper
Yup, as a Cole fan I’ve got to agree 100%, the storytelling was underwhelming & the production was decent at best even though there are a few good songs, namely “Love Yourz”
Thank God he reps NY
*North Carolina
From North Carolina reps NY; listen to the album
Justice. Nikki Minaj sold her soul and sold 100k. Justice
For real, she really lost a lot of avid rap listeners with that second album, myself included.
Don’t know how you didn’t see this coming., Cole just needed to find his step.. his off key singing is just trying to get back to jazz.. The root of hip-hop.. He abandoned the formulaic procedure for a single and album and delivered a hip hop album for the year.. Classic or not it deserves a listen and your respect.
IT’S THE MUTHA FUCKIN ROC!
IT’S THE ROC!!!!! GOOD MUSIC WITH NO STUPID BS! DOPE ALBUM!!!
That’s a lot of light skin dudes in college.
WOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!! This…….mixed nie99a
That’s pretty impressive for an album that had little marketing
little? damn near 0 haha
360k first week is amazing with only three weeks of promo, to me I rate the album 4.5/5 he did his thing on this album. I love seeing stand up guys like Cole win. K.dot is up next.
Jcole, Kendrick and Drake the leaders of rap can’t complain about that.
kill yourself eminem outsold all of them
He’s white
The best out, foolish pride’ll make you not admit it
In these f***ed up times we need inspiration, subtance and consistency. Cole is showing theses rappers.
Interesting how nobody mentioned they’re counting streams as albums sold…
congrats coleworld. you did without no promo
Cadillatica was way better than this Album
I Love Cole Album man. No Skips on the first 9 songs. a couple of the last few were great lyrically but not something I’ll listen to daily. But Mastermind was fuckin HARD. smh cant understand why it dont get its proper credit
payola is the name of the game with roc nation and all its artists/entities….
“wow j.cole went number 1!!? wow lemme go out and buy that shit now, wait i could just buy it on itunes!” lmao foh…shit went aluminum…
How did your album do? OH WAIT…
i hate when people do this, I DONT RAP THOUGH..
Cole deserves all the success he’s getting – son made a statement with this album
almost 400k….damn thats nuts!!
Cole the only rapper on the billboard that gave a fuck to take a stand with the ‘common folk’ when shit was poppin off after both the Michael Brown and Eric Garner pig fucks weren’t indicted… he’s THAT dude! That’s why people fuck with him- he just doesn’t make good music- he’s a good human. I’m happy to see he got this kind of love- fuck the hate.
Album is kinda wack tho.he hasn’t had a project that lived up to the warm up yet
Drake could move 800,000 if he dropped an album tomorrow. Fair play to Cole, though. Have to respect that.
A great day in Hip-Hop. MUCH RESPECT
this should be on the top 5