J. Cole took to Twitter on April 16 to announce his new album, K.O.D., will be released April 20. The news was prefaced with a surprise show in at New York’s Gramercy Theatre, where phones, bags, and cameras were prohibited. According to attendees, the show served as a preview of the album. The album will be released on Cole’s Dreamville label via Roc Nation and Interscope.
This is not the first time that Cole has dropped an album with short notice. The same marketing tactics were employed during the roll-out of his third album 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The album had limited promotional push and no lead singles, but still maintained to reach double platinum status. The corresponding tour moved approximately 565,000-575,000 tickets and grossed $16 million.
In 2016, Cole silently announced the release of his then-upcoming album 4 Your Eyez Only, with the only notice coming from an iTunes pre-order page.
Though Cole is coy when it comes to announcements, his bank account is anything but. The St. John’s University grad made the Cash Kings list with $19 million in 2017, thanks to an extensive touring schedule.
Though he has not yet released a corresponding touring schedule for his upcoming project, he is billed for a headlining slot at JMBLYA Festival in Texas.
The tactic is not new to Cole: He stealth-dropped his third album “2014 Forest Hills Drive,” and announced the release of his fourth album, 2016’s “4 Your Eyes Only,” with just an iTunes pre-order page. “Forest Hills” garnered the rapper three of his five total Grammy nominations, with nods for Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance (for “Apparently”) and Best R&B Performance (for “Planez”).
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