J. Cole’s new album The Off-Season may have had an unconventional rollout, but it looks to have had some pretty results for the North Carolina rapper-turned-ballplayer on this week’s Billboard charts. Not only did the album land at No. 1 on the album chart with the biggest streaming week yet in 2021, but songs from the new album also dominated all but one of the top five on the streaming chart, while the Hot 100’s top 10 contains all four of those entries from the new album.
The four songs that made both charts are “My Life” featuring 21 Savage and Morray (who sings Pharoahe Monch’s chorus from Styles P’s 2002 single “The Life”), “Amari,” the only song to be released with its own video, “Pride Is The Devil” which features streaming favorite du jour Lil Baby, and album intro “95 South,” which contains uncredited appearances from turn-of-the-millennium pioneers Cam’ron and Lil Jon. While these songs occupy spots 2-5 on the streaming chart — with Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” taking the top spot — they came in at Nos. 2, 5, 7, and 8 on the Hot 100, respectively.
This week's most-streamed songs:
1. @Olivia_Rodrigo Good 4 U
2. @JColeNC, @21savage & @morrayda1 https://t.co/Yu8bjtrCMb
3. @JColeNC amari
4. @JColeNC & @lilbaby4PF https://t.co/mbMiC7GAir.the.devil
5. @JColeNC 95.south— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) May 24, 2021
The #Hot100 top 10 (chart dated May 29, 2021)
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) May 24, 2021
During the album’s eccentric launch, J. Cole released the album’s “Interlude” as a standalone single, shared a documentary detailing its creation, covered Slam magazine, and joined the newly formed Basketball Africa League, playing his first game for the Rwanda Patriots against the Nigeria Rivers Hoopers just one day after the album’s release. Also, some fun facts:
This is the first time in history that five songs debut in the top 10 of the #Hot100 in a single week.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) May 24, 2021
Every artist to debut four songs in the top 10 of the #Hot100 in the same week:@JuiceWorlddd @LilTunechi @Drake @JColeNC
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) May 24, 2021
Check out the Billboard tweets above and listen to The Off-Season here.