For any artist, premature album leaks are a seemingly unavoidable fate and such was the case for hip-hop newcomer J. Cole, whose debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, which was slated to hit stores on Sept. 27, leaked online earlier this week. Though many artists would be upset by a leak, Cole, who anticipated the premature release, spoke with VIBE last week, about the his album’s unavoidable fate and shrugged it off as “a part of the game.”
“There’s been worse leaks than that so I understand it’s a part of the game — I always understood that,” said Cole. “As long as people hear it together, it’s cool. I just know that people who are going to buy it were going to buy it anyways, and the people weren’t — probably weren’t anyways.”
Cole added, “If anything, the leak will reach out to more people who might be like ‘ah man, let’s go get this.’ So you know, it’s kind of like promotion these days — if you got a good album. If you don’t have a good album — they’ll just trash you.”
For Cole, who recently released a video for his Trey Songz-assisted single, “Can’t Get Enough,” the only thing that’s on his mind is his excitement over releasing his first album.
“I’m really excited and proud. I can’t believe I will have a CD in the stores — you know what I’m saying? I got a long way to go in the game but that’s definitely a day where I’ll be able to pat myself on the back, which I don’t do often. But that will be the day I do that,” said Cole, adding, “I’m going to buy 100 copies. I just feel bad — like where I buy the 100 copies from, I don’t want them to sell out and fans not being able to get them. But I’m definitely buying at least 100 [Laughs].”
For fans that actually want to financially support J. Cole, Cole World: The Sideline Story is currently available for pre-sale on iTunes –nicholas robinson
