OG Cole fans remember everything leading up to The Sideline Story

Sideline story snippet we thought we had a classic

No it was not. Erase Me departed the Hot 100 before the album released and never returned

Hov’s fault fr

at the same time, it did produce some commercialized heaters

Yea thats fair but cudi already had a successful debut with a hit

To clarify my original point its that labels wouldnt believe that their internet artists could break through and sell units without a radio hit

Which is why they would force those crossover songs and hold their artists back. But i think the sentiment started to shift with Cole, and there’s a loooong downstream from there to now where we have no monoculture and random pockets of artists with die hard fanbases who dont even bother to try and appeal to “mainstream listeners”

Those grainy ass ustream snippets

Don't forget Born Sinner fam.

Was proof he can do more of what he wanted with supposedly less budget and still attract the fans. 2nd albums are always key for artists.

i think everyone one remembers this being big but not when it dropped and it was quiet lol it was everywhere spring/summer 2012

Yep. The same thing happened with Power Trip, there was a thread on ktt1 celebrating it being a flop and then it became a hit months later and the thread kept getting bumped

one of the greatest singles of the 2010s too

i remember when ktt found out Power Trip wasnt about a woman fr

Him tryna go head to head with Yeezus at that time was pretty ballsy. Lowkey, the fanbase having his back always really helped him through that early mess

Welp I just found this out myself just now

What’s it about? Music?

Very unconventional single if you really look at it

yea n abt making a hit song

cant help but feel like i dropped the ball, cliche > sideline stories
f*** her one time, make one hit
freeze frame yelling pls play etc

he talked about it on his breakfast club interview i think

Which was a huge problem in development imo

That's really the moment I knew he wouldn't reach the same level as Drake or Kendrick

Makes complete sense, I was just spinning it yesterday but gotta go back again now

Agreed but the Sideline Story didn't make every label executive over rap music change course when it comes to releasing albums by new artists lol. The album did well and overperformed the expectations they had for Cole back then but it wasn't that successful.

Drake had multiple smash hits to his name before Thank Me Later dropped and he still had to deal with label interference when making that album. Nicki, Wale, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, etc all dealt with the same thing when making their major label debut albums.

Labels would usually get anxious around the debut album of a new artist and would try their best to ensure it had all it needed to be successful. If that album ended up doing well, then they'd usually give more control to the artists for their sophomore albums, etc.

This nigga lived thru 2024 and said beef isn’t entertaining

Most the s*** you complained about is only something you dealt with if you spent the entire beef online

Think ur missing my point. Its not that Cole was unique and was the only one who had to deal with major label interference.

It's that Cole didnt have a single that was making waves before the album drop and sold 218k first week (and could of sold more if the label didnt undershipped it). This was off the strength of him building up a core fanbase. Wiz had black and yellow out before rolling papers and Cole still outsold with pretty much nun out.

This made some labels realize its more than just a big single, artists need to work on building a core fanbase

Cole has gone on record multiple times saying pretty much every song he makes about a girl is also about music

Cole?

Fair enough, but I still don't think the success of Cole's debut album changed anything. Labels still had some interference with the debut albums of new acts moving forward. Maybe not in terms of demanding a hit single beforehand, but they'd still keep their eye on things and make sure the product that was coming out was one they were confident in and in situations where they weren't fully confident, they'd still release the album, but it'd be undershipped (this happened with Logic's major label debut album, which dropped in 2014).

The game has always been that you do well enough on your debut and your future albums get less oversight and interference from the label.

Very ballsy and I for one was definitely one that enjoyed it as an album much more than that.

a few of them was just to clean up so his wife aint start asking questions