J. Cole '2014 Forest Hills Drive' Goes Gold in Second Week

The holiday buying season has been kind to J. Cole. It has been so kind that he just received a large delivery of gold to his doorstep. That gold comes in the form of an RIAA-certified gold record, which reportedly is for his new, critically acclaimed album 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

Last week, his album sold 371,000 copies and earned him the No. 1 spot on the charts, the third consecutive time he has done that. Second-week sales reportedly have dropped to 135,000, which is the fourth highest for the week and earns him his third gold record at more than 500,000 albums sold. The album sales include equivalents from album streams.

His previous two albums, Born Sinner and Cole Word: The Sideline Story, went gold after strong first weeks of sales.

This was all done with little promotion before the album and no singles released beforehand. He played some of his new neighbors at 2014 Forest Hills Drive the album at a listening party, but otherwise waited until after the album was released to start releasing videos and do media appearances.

The challenge for Cole will be to see if he can continue the momentum through the holiday buying season and into January to potentially go platinum. Gauging how low album sales have been in 2014, fans should not hold their breath, but it is something can he can aspire to.

Naught or nice, Santa Claus just gave Cole a big present for Christmas.

Watch the video for "Apparently" below:

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J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, RIAA