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J. COLE SOLD 200K FIRST WEEK WITH NO MAJOR SINGLE: DID SIDELINE STORY MAKE REAL HIP HOP RELEVANT AGAIN?
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| The under dog has done it. J. Cole's debut album 'Cole World: The Sideline Story' has debuted at number one. HDD is reporting that J. Cole has managed to sell 217,324 copies of his debut disk in it's first week. Not only is J. Cole number one but he sold more copies in a week than Blink-182?s comeback album. Impressive, Jermaine!(Rap Dose) |
In an era where swag sells, the relatively swagless Cole managed to attain a strong core audience that not only supported him through numerous album setbacks, but took the ride on the Roc Nation bench as Cole sate, waiting for the day his disc went up for retail. Cole is no here today, gone tomorrow spitter: Takes his craft serious, a rarity from many of today's Hip Pop artists, which makes his solid sales figures a pretty big deal.
Cole on his legion of faithful followers:
The fact that I could go do shows before my album came out and I'm on a world tour just speaks to my fans, you know? I don't really have a smash hit on the radio right now, so all of this is because of the fans that I have. It's not like I came into the game with "The Best I Ever Had" [like Drake] or like a "Hustlin'" like Rick Ross. I didn't have a smash ... I'm still working at that. So this is all energy from the music."(SOHH)
There used to be a time that your lyrics had to really pack a punch in order for you to get commercial and critical success in the rap world. Hip-hop heads refer to that time period as the "Golden Era" of rap. Before the ringtones and microwaveable music, it was about hunger, content and style. Is it possible that if more albums like Cole World score big at registers we'll see a return of the real?