top me if you’ve heard this
before: J. Cole is the first
rapper in twenty-five years
to go double platinum with
no features. The achievement is
an impressive accomplishment —
Vanilla
Ice was
the
most
recent
rapper to
reach
the milestone, doing such with To
The Extreme (1990) which featured “Ice Ice Baby” but no other
rappers. Cole’s devoted fans have
become a wildly entertaining
meme. Why? Because of how
often they remind hip hop heads
about the North Carolina rapper’s
fame.
Here’s the best thing about the
recent J. Cole meme — which,
mind you, doesn’t poke fun at the
rapper but rather his fans: it’s applicable in nearly every situation.
“Love him or hate him,
there’s simply no denying
his relevance.
2014 Forrest Hills Drive was
fantastic and sold more than 1
million copies after the album
debuted as the number one on
Billboard’s charts.
Let’s
give
this
theory
a test
run.
Did
you watch the NBA Finals Game
6?
If you did, you saw basketball icon
Stephen Curry lose his cool with
a referee after fouling out with
over four minutes remaining.What
caused the tension? Perhaps the
ref didn’t understand that Cole is
the first rapper in 25 years to go
double platinum with no features.
Rhyme Junkie loves Cole; he’s
more than just “on his way to
Hollywood” as we’ve written
before. Rather, little old Jermaine
(with every ounce of strength in
his veins) is already a shining star.
But it’s no secret that his fans
relentlessly note that he’s the
first rapper in twenty-five years
to go double platinum without a
feature. Cole, who is now featured
along with Missy Elliott and 2pac
on Sprite cans, has undoubtedly
become one of the biggest names
in hip hop.
Love him or hate him, there’s simply no denying his relevance.
YAUDIO Magazine
Issue 1
Maybe you and your homies
were talking about how Drake
recently went double platinum for
Views. Toronto’s finest (who reportedly recently narrowly avoided beef with Compton’s Kendrick
Lamar) earned the recognition.
Check this reply to @DailyRap-
Facts; Cole achieved that record
as well…but without any features.
Speaking of rappers, Childish
Gambino (whatever happened to
his mixtape with Chance the Rapper, by the way?) is also an actor
when he’s not spitting bars.
Did you hear that he was also
cast in the new Spider Man
movie? @iAmTerrace wasn’t impressed.
I was particularly convinced by
this post, where one user says
he wants his child’s first words to
be, you guessed it…J. Cole went
platinum with no features.
In other news, The Game announced that his upcoming album
1992 will have #NOFEATURES.
Numbers don't lie, and the
numbers now say J. Cole is one of
the most commercially popular
rappers of his generation.
It's been a year and a half since
J. Cole dropped his Forest Hills
Drive album on the rap world's
heads, and today his manager, Ib,
posted on Instagram that FHD
had surpassed 2 million copies
sold, officially putting Cole on
that double-platinum pedestal.
It's an impressive feat in an age
where albums rarely go platinum,
let alone double, although the
RIAA's new rules, which count