J. Cole Tops Album Chart With ‘Forest Hills Drive’, Marks 2014’s Highest-Selling Debut For Rap LP

Robbie Daw | December 17, 2014 10:44 am
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Little-to-no promo seems to be the way to go for J. Cole. The North Carolina rapper barely gave a heads-up a month ago that his album Forest Hills Drive was on the way in December, and without even a single out ahead of time to promote the project, the LP has debuted atop the Billboard 200 on the strength of 371,000 copies sold. It’s the biggest debut for a rap album this year, and comes just behind the 383,000 copies Coldplay‘s Ghost Stories (2014’s third best debut week) opened with in the spring.

Cole’s Forest Hills Drive opening trumps that of his last album, 2013’s Born Sinner, which started with 297,000, as well as his first LP, 2011’s Cole World: The Sideline Story, which debuted with 218,000. All three of the MC’s studio albums have gone in at #1 on the Billboard 200.

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