The Numbers Game: J. Cole is #1

Cole Numbers

Not only did J. Cole drop an album late in the year with almost no promotion, he now has the biggest Hip-Hop debut of 2014. 2014 Forest Hills Drive sold around 371,000 units in it’s fist week. This go around marks the second time Cole has grabbed the #1 spot (Cole World: The Sideline Story also debuted at #1 in 2011). This is also his biggest debut in terms of sales (Born Sinner sold 297,000 in it’s first week last year & Cole World: The Sideline Story sold 217,300 in it’s first week). So if Nicki Minaj’s new album The Pinkprint does the numbers projected for next week (155,000 to 165,000), do we all need to redo our rap rankings?

If you haven’t, go read and then comment on our review of J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive here.

Whether you like K. Michelle‘s music or if you like to sit on the internet all day and complain about how fake her ass is, you still have to admit that she’s crafted a viable music career helped by doing reality shows. She dropped her second album Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart? and sold 87,000 copies. This is an improvement over her last album, Rebellious Soul, which sold 72,000 copies. K. Michelle has basically taken over the lane occupied by Keshia Cole & Fantasia and cornered the market on what I like to call “Baby Momma” music.

PRhyme, aka Royce Da 5’9″ & DJ Premier, dropped their self-titled project and landed at #59 and sold 13,500 units. Not bad for a 9 track album. I still need to check this out but we got a review coming soon. Hopefully.

And lastly, E-40 dropped his 21st album (?) with Sharp On All 4 Corners: Corner 1. E-40 has been dropping multiple albums at a time these past few years but I guess now he’s doing the crazy thing by dropping one album at a time. All 4 Corners: Corner 1 lands at #61 and moves 11,700 units.


#1 J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive (Last Week: N/A) – 371,000; Total: N/A [Debut]
#6 K. Michelle – Anybody Wanna Buy A Heart? (Last Week: N/A) – 87,000; Total: N/A [Debut]
#9 Mary J. Blige – The London Sessions (Last Week: #9) – 26,400; Total: 81,000 [2 Weeks]
#31 Chris Brown – X (Last Week: #54) – 15,800; Total: 310,200 [13 Weeks]
#37 Shady XV (Last Week: #21) – 17,900; Total: 188,600 [3 Weeks]
#44 Beyonce – Beyonce (Last Week: #39) – 11,400; Total: 2,147,000 (2x Platinum) [53 Weeks]
#59 PRhyme – PRhyme (Last Week: N/A) – 13,500; Total: N/A [Debut]
#61 E-40 – Sharp On All 4 Corners: Corner 1 (Last Week: N/A) – 11,700; Total: N/A [Debut]


Hip-Hop + R&B album sales for the week of December 9th (Top 50 & New Releases)