J. Cole Goes Back-To-Back To The Top Of The Charts With No Features
The album sales charts are in from the December 9 releases. With them, J. Cole’s fourth album, 4 Your Eyez Only is at the top of the rankings. This is the fourth consecutive time that the Roc Nation MC/producer has achieved a #1, dating back to 2011’s debut, Cole World – This Sideline Story. Selling the equivalent of over 492,000 albums in the first week on the market, Cole’s effort will be presumably certified as gold by the RIAA in the days ahead. Of that figure, Billboard reports that 363,000 units came from traditional sales; the rest are from digital streams.
More interestingly to some, the 10-track, 44-minute Dreamville/Roc Nation/Interscope release contains no significant guests or features. This follows a feat true of 2014 Forest Hills Drive, released two years ago to the date. In October, that album was certified double-platinum, achieving a milestone not reached by a Rap solo artist in 25 years. This release, under the new rules of combining streams and traditional sales, also achieved more than 150,000 more units in its first week than the last.
4 Your Eyez Only is the third largest first week sales of 2016, trailing Drake’s Views (1.04 million) and Beyoncé’s Lemonade (653,000). Ahead of his album, Cole released two non-LP videos, (“Everybody Dies” and “False Prophets (Be Like This)”). Additionally, an album documentary was released, simply called Eyez. Prior to December 1, nine days before release, the public was unaware that J. Cole had 2016 album plans. This release will be eligible for Grammy Award consideration in 2018.
4.Y.E.O. includes production from Cardiak, Elite, Vinylz, Boi-1da, Velous, Ron Gilmore, Frank Dukes, and others, in addition to Cole.