On April 16, 2018, J. Cole announced a surprise free event for fans at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City. The event turned out to be a listening session for his forthcoming album, titled KOD, which was released on April 20, 2018. Cole held a second listening session in London the next day. The album's cover and tracklist show twelve tracks and two features, both by Cole's alter ego, Kill Edward. Cole had mentioned that KOD has 3 meanings, Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed, and Kill Our Demons. The cover art for KOD was done by a Detroit artist named Kamau Haroon who goes by the name Sixmau. The album touches on many topics including drug abuse, addiction, depression, and greed. In the United States, on the day of its release, KOD broke the previous record for Views by Drake in 2016 by receiving 64.5 million streams on Apple Music. It accumulated 36.7 million streams on Spotify in its first 24 hours as well. Additionally, the titled track also surpassed Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" by 0.4 million streams on its first day. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 397,000 album-equivalent units, including 174,000 in pure sales, making it Cole's fifth number one album. J. Cole also became the first act to simultaneously debut three songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with "ATM" (at 6), "Kevin's Heart" (8), and "KOD" (10). The remainder of the album also debuted in the Hot 100, totaling to twelve songs on the chart. "KOD" was released as the album's first single, on May 8, 2018. Cole released music videos for the songs "ATM" and "Kevin's Heart", both videos was directed by Cole and Scott Lazer. "ATM" impacted US rhythmic contemporary radio on July 31, 2018, as the album's second single. Songs from the album were featured in the official 2018 NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals promotion for ESPN. On April 27, 2018 it was announced that Cole was working on another project titled The Fall Off, Cole said that he planned to release The Fall Off before he recorded KOD. Cole also confirmed that he is working on a Kill Edward album. On May 14, 2018, KOD was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 album-equivalent units in the US. The album has since been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with one million album-equivalent units in the United States.
J. Cole Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family
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