When it comes to hip-hop albums, labels have a pretty simple formula thats, for the most part built for success. It normally goes like this: 1) Make a radio friendly single, 2) Promote single and promote album over all forms of social media, and lastly 3) Have a couple performances where you still promote the album and, or perform an exclusive song off album to generate more hype.
The formula isn’t foolproof, it has its flaws from the very first step. You can make a radio friendly song, but nothings guaranteed. there’s chances you can make a terrible song for the radio. Or you can make one hit single and never see any real commercial success outside that one song, then from there it’s a slippery slope leading into a disaster of an album release.
Despite a day one formula, there are artists who are willing to defy against the norms of an album release. For the next 5 weeks, i’ll be discussing five hip hop artists who are changing the ways of album releases for hip-hop.
“Carolinas finest, and turned to the greatest. I proved that already, and if you would like, i’ll do it twice.” Boasts J. Cole off his second track, “January 28th” from his most recent critically acclaimed album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
“Carolina’s finest" himself, J. Cole. 2014 Forest Hills Drive was released during the final weeks of the year and managed to pull off the biggest first week release for any hip-hop album. Opening with 353,000 copies in the first week, Cole’s album was already a commercial success. But the real amazing thing here, is that there was absolutely ZERO promotion and singles for this album prior to the release. Cole had sent out a tweet a three weeks before it’s release that stated, “My new album. 2014 Forest Hills Drive. 12/9.” then went back to remaining inactive on twitter as usual.
In a day and age, where selling 1,000,000 copies on the first week seems impossible and unheard of, these first week numbers are impressive in itself and launch J. Cole into discussion as being one of hip-hop’s elite amongst his new class peers.
The album was entirely written and mostly produced by J. Cole, which is his staple at this point, but the album also did not feature any artists. That last fact makes this album ten times more important, because three months later the album will certified Platinum by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which in turn makes it the first hip-hop album in the last 25 years to go platinum. The album was also nominated for a grammy, which he lost to Kendrick Lamar…but that’s a story for another day.
At this point J. Cole and his talented roster of artists, from his self made record label “Dreamville”, are really like the ’96 bulls. Having success show for it, Cole is truly proving to be a master in the booth and behind the board. 2014 Forest Hills Drive was certainly his best impression of Micheal Jordan, if hip-hop was his basketball court. Surely, “Where ever we goooooooo, and whatever we dooooooooo, and whatever we seeeeeeee, and whoever we beeeeeeee, it don’t matter”, because Cole is shaping himself to be a legend in the making and is shaping the future for the newer generation along the way.
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