J. Cole Went Platinum With No Features & You Can Too!
Earlier this summer, North Carolina’s favorite son J. Cole became the first Hip Hop artist in 25 years to go platinum with ZERO features on his most recent album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
When it was announced that Cole had achieved this milestone, the Internet exploded. Literally. “J. Cole Went Platinum With No Features” instantly became one of the most used memes across social media with the historical announcement.
As you can see, with this incredible album, Jermaine Lamarr Cole cemented his name and his legacy in both music & meme history.
And, in today’s world of Hip Hop, don’t the two just go hand in hand?
But despite this incredible achievement, Cole has seemingly forgotten about his June success already. Last week, the now-platinum artist was spotted riding the bus in Queens and rumors have been swirling for months that J. Cole is already working on a joint album with Compton’s Kendrick Lamar.
With 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J. Cole proved to artists and brands that you CAN succeed on your own, without features driving your content, your product, and your overall image.
Here are a few ways your brand, just like J. Cole, can create killer content without features, celebrity endorsements or social influencers.
“My Fans Love Me For Me”
J. Cole is as authentic and down to earth as they come in the rap world. But that is clearly not the only way to build your brand and voice. Kanye West is a perfect example of the complete opposite, an artist who’s beloved for his style, fashion perspective, insane tweets, and ridiculous (brilliant) life quotes on the daily.
For brands, the recipe is quite similar. Be authentic. Build your voice, values, and vision. Create engaging content around those core beliefs. Don’t stray from that path, unless you are aiming to change your perception. Pokemon’s recent success is a great example of a brand maintaining its voice despite more than a decade out of the spotlight before embracing a completely new medium.
Brands must be consistent in their tone and their fans will follow. Hone in on your community and audience. Create content that you know they want. Don’t try to change consumer preferences, work within & around them. And success will come to your business.
“I’m Never Satisfied”
In music, the consumer is constantly looking forward.
What’s the next big song? Who’s the new hot artist? What’s my favorite album this week? What kind of playlist am I in the mood for today?
Brands and businesses deal with a similar consumer in this 2016 environment. With social, mobile and technology evolving, brands are constantly looking to innovate for their audiences. Creating content and experiences around VR, 360, AR and Bots has proven effective in a number of key business objectives.
Pokemon Go innovated around Augmented Reality in a way that re-energized the brand and its audience. On the flip side, Yahoo’s sale to Verizon this week was a great example of what happens to brands today that fail to innovate.
Fine print: You lose.
Motivating your consumers to look forward and creating a brand that cares about innovating for its audience is a great way to begin developing content. Leaving your consumers guessing & always wanting more is one great way to build a real community around your brand.
“You Can’t Reverse Fame”
Just a month before reaching platinum status, J. Cole partnered with HBO to release J. Cole Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming, a 90-minute concert film that told Cole’s story in a very different way. With cameos from friends & mentors like Drake, Big Sean & Jay Z, HBO developed a special that showcased the brand & image Jermaine and his team have been pushing out since the day he was signed to Roc Nation.
The special was all about two things: Cole and his Music. Success clearly followed.
The film still has a 94% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and helped Cole’s December 2014 album reach the tremendous platinum status it deserved just a month after its release.
HBO showed brands that choosing the right partner, a partner that gives you the freedom to tell your story on your terms can do wonders for your business.
Similar to Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat for brands, HBO was chosen as the right platform for Cole’s personal documentary because it gave his team the ability to create content the way THEY wanted, while providing the mass reach neccesary to achieve real business success.
“I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.”
J. Cole’s recent success can teach brands a ton about creating engaging content and driving real business results. But his actions of late, whether it’s remaining humble, working on new initiatives, or choosing the right partners, gives marketers an even better idea of how musicians like Cole maintain their success year after year.
Be authentic with your audience, never stop innovating & only choose partners that give you the freedom to create. J. Cole has killed it at all three.
For brands in a mobile-first world, those three Cole priciples will do wonders to your content creation and, ultimately, your bottom line.
These are the lessons J. Cole has brought to people across the country and around the world about branding, partners, and business overall.
But, above all, J. Cole has taught us all something about competition.
“I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.”
That’s how we all should feel. Not just brands and businesses. But people. Always try something new. Always look forward. And always feel like an underdog.
Because without that ambition you’ll never achieve greatness.
