With rhetoric about a direct-to-fan approach at a fever pitch in the Hip Hop industry, Funk Volume rapper Jarren Benton addressed one of the biggest albums of 2014 and explained how its artist didn’t need a big-budget marketing plan from a record label to accomplish the feat.
Speaking about J. Cole, Benton credited the Fayetteville emcee with capitalizing on his fan-base instead of relying on his record label to put up album sales.
“It seemed genuine,” Benton told HipHopDX’s Andre Grant in a clip that debuted as a part of today’s DX Daily. “It wasn’t waiting on some big crazy marketing plan from the fucking label. He did what he did. He went straight for the fans. You got the fans, they there. If you fuck with the fans and give them what they want they gon’ be there, man.”
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Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive album put up the biggest first-weeks sales numbers of any Hip Hop album in 2014, eclipsing Rick Ross’ early-year outing as well as Nicki Minaj’s Pinkprint release. The album, which received little to no promotional lead-up, sold 353,538 in just its first week on the shelves. 2014 Forest Hills Drive was J. Cole’s second album to debut at #1 and his third overall to reach the milestone.
