J. Cole released his fifth studio album KOD on 20 April 2018 on Dreamville with distribution through Roc Nation/ Interscope Records. KOD follows J. Cole’s critically acclaimed, platinum-selling 2016 album, 4 Your Eyez Only.
On weekend of release J Cole dominated the entire Top 10 on Apple Music in South Africa. That however wasn't the only achievement.
Major music and entertainment outlets report that J. Cole has set a new Apple Music record for the most streamed album in 24 hours. Stories note that Apple Music is “continuing its run of major first-week streaming totals when it comes to hip-hop and R&B artists,” and that with 64.5 million streams, J. Cole not only “breaks Drake’s 24-hour streaming record” on Apple Music but also “nearly doubles its Spotify streams.”
The Verge writes, “somehow Apple Music — which has 120 million fewer users than Spotify — continues to give its top competitor trouble with releases in the world’s most popular genre of music.”
Billboard notes, “Apple Music’s subscribers stream more hip-hop on average than do Spotify’s” and states, “the strong performance shows how streaming is helping some artists succeed without traditional record deals.”
Vibe points out that not only did he “destroy Drake’s streaming record” but that, “Cole now owns seven of Apple’s ten most-streamed songs in a 24-hour period.”
Music Business Worldwide reports on the “surprising” news and begs the question, “is Apple Music’s hip-hop-leaning US audience over-indexing to such a degree that the service is becoming the No.1 platform for the genre in the States?”
A North Carolina native, J. Cole was the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label, which released his official debut Cole World: The Sideline Story in 2011. Over the course of his career he’s received five Grammy Award nominations, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album (for 2014’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive). All four of J. Cole’s previous albums have been certified platinum.
Watch the new video for 'ATM', a single from KOD:
- Universal Music Africa
