Kanye vs. J.Cole & What It Means For Hip-hop (RM Article)

As the entire world should know by now, June 18th will be the biggest day in 2013 hip-hop. Kanye West will be releasing his Yeezus album, and Cole will be officially releasing his Born Sinner LP in stores. On top of that, also dropping albums that day will be Statik Selektah and Mac Miller. Statik will put up some cult-core fan base numbers, Mac Miller should sell pretty well, and possibly even beat J.Cole. We all know Kanye will win, just because he is Kanye West. What makes this day so special is that three of the top twenty rap artists [Cole, Miller& Kanye], as far as fanbases are concerned, are dropping the same day. I expect all three to put up great numbers, and it could be the most rap albums sold in a week in who knows how long. Justin Timberlake went platinum in a week pretty much when he released his 20/20. I honestly think Kanye West can do that in a week. He has created unreal levels of hype. Kanye put projections for his "New Slaves" track on 66 building in 66 locations worldwide. That is some unreal, modern day super hero shit.  J.Cole put a stream out for his album eleven days before release, and I am on the fence for that move. Mac Miller also released a stream, and received positive reviews, especially from his fanbase. Kanye could sell a mill because he also has no pre-orders for the album, and no cover art. Similar to what Lupe did with a blank cover, Yeezy's album will just be a clear case with a red sticker that says Yeezus. His Saturday Night Live performance was excellent, and really got the world talking. No one can tweet a random date, and receive speculation like Kanye did. June 18th is a huge day for hip-hop. I respect J.Cole to the maximum however. He was suppose to release his sophomore LP on June 25th originally, the same day that Wale drops The Gifted, but instead he chose to go head to head with Hip-hop's biggest superstar. That move, ladies and gentlemen, shows me that J.Cole is here to stay, even if he knows that Kanye will beat him.

Predictions for Kanye vs. J.Cole Week:

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Artist Label: J.Cole, Kanye West