Ever since J. Cole‘s 2014 Forest Hills Drive sold over a million copies, the refrain “platinum with no features” has been a running gag among rap fans online, used to praise and defend the North Carolina-bred rapper and needle his fans. Now, both critics and supporters have more ammunition to keep the meme alive a little longer, as Cole’s latest album, the high-concept KOD, has been confirmed as a platinum-certified album, exactly eights months after its release. And no, there are no features on this one either, considering that “Kill Edward,” who appeared on “The Cut Off” and “Friends,” is actually just an alter-ego.
The Twitter account @chartdata, which tracks music sales in real time with data provided by Billboard, Soundscan, Mediatraffic, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and other sources, provided the update on Thursday, writing that the album had crossed the 1,000,000 threshold, which will like be confirmed by Billboard in Tuesday’s edition of its chart updates.
US certifications (@RIAA): @JColeNC, KOD Platinum (1,000,000; album).
— chart data (@chartdata) December 20, 2018
Meanwhile, KOD was considered by many critics and fans as one of the top rap albums of the year, although he wasn’t nominated for that particular Grammy Award. However, with the notoriously elusive Cole choosing to focus on organizing his Dreamville Festival and putting out music from his Dreamville Music family (as well as some vicious freestyles of his own), it doesn’t seem likely that the “ATM” rapper will spend too much time celebrating. After all, he’s been here before.
