J. Cole- "2014 Forest Hills Drive"

Though just released yesterday, J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive first week sales projections are already in, and they’re looking to be amazing! Before I reveal the numbers, let’s review what we are working with here. Only just a couple of weeks ago, Cole reemerged from Nowheresville, and revealed that the album was coming. Since dropping his sophomore effort in the summer of 2013 and doing a few months of touring promotion, the Roc Nation rapper has been completely off the radar until the new album announcement. In addition to that, he’s released ZERO singles to radio for this project, unlike the last two albums, and has done relatively zero promo on top of that. The most he’s done has been a magazine interview and one music video beforehand, with the second video dropping on the night of the album’s release (last night.)

Marisa Mendez

Despite all of that, according to early projections, Cole is on track to move a whopping 240-270k of the album in its first week. That’s insane! It just goes to show his power as an artist, and with ZERO features on the album and the simplest music videos ever – Roc Nation is probably recouping ALL of their money within like, the first day. He’s a major label’s dream, huh? We’ll get the official number on Tuesday night.

Cole’s debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, debuted at number 1 in the fall of 2011 with 218k copies sold, while his sophomore effort in the summer of 2013, Born Sinner, came in at number 2 with 297k copies sold, so he’s certainly right where he needs to be.

What do you think about the 2014 Forest Hills Drive first week sales projections? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!