double platinum, no features

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Hey! I'm on vacation for the next few days, but I wrote this week's memo on Friday. So if something popped off since this weekend, I have no idea. I'll find out in a few days. Your boy is in beach mode right now.

This memo covers J. Cole's upcoming album drop for The-Offseason, Cash Money Records, and Billboard and Twitter's new Hot Trending chart.

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Is J.Cole Ready for The-Offseason?

This week Friday, Jermaine Cole will drop his sixth studio album The-Offseason, his first since 2018!

A lot has changed. Three years isn't that long, but it's long in hip-hop. When KOD dropped in April 2018, the album set tons of streaming records. That was his month. He proved, yet again, that he can avoid the forced "mainstream hits" and still get mainstream success.

But KOD broke those records and earned those headlines due to perfect timing. It dropped a few months before bigger releases like Drake's Scorpion, Travis Scott's Astroworld, and Lil' Wayne's The Carter V.

With The-Offseason, he's in a similar boat. He'll drop before the other big stars rumored to have albums coming in 2021. His timing also lines up with the NBA playoffs. He probably has another hit ready for all the playoff promo commercials.

Still the same Cole? The 'double platinum, no features' rapper is in a different position than he was three years ago. Last we heard from Cole, he wanted a ten-day NBA contract, had a regrettable incident with Noname, and posted a list of goals on Instagram. He still has his Dreamville day-one base, but the casual Cole fans aren't buzzin about him like they were in 2017 and 2018.

If he outperforms the 397,000 album units that KOD sold in its first week, I'll be shocked. In his defense, Cole has never obsessed over numbers. But superstars don't drop on New Music Fridays unless they want to track the chart performance.

Want more on Cole? Read my 2018 essay on his 1,000 True Fans, and listen to my Trapital Podcast interview with his manager and Dreamville President, Ibrahim "Ib" Hamad.

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Cash Money's Bittersweet Dominance

Last week, Birdman said that Cash Money's masters generate $20 - 30 million in revenue per year. He dropped the news in an interview with Wallo from Where's Wallo? and the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast.

The deal of a lifetime. Cash Money's wealth stems back to its 1998 distribution deal with Universal Music Group:

• 80% profit split for Cash Money
• 85% share of royalties
• $2M annual advance
• Cash Money kept its masters

The record labels wanted in on that southern, New Orleans sound. This was hip-hop's Louisiana purchase. Cash Money delivered and took over advantage. Shoutout to Wendy Day who helped close this deal!

In 2019, the label accounted for 1% of market share for the entire music industry. That's huge for a label that focuses on one genre! The label has been a valuable asset for both Republic Record and UMG.

Do better. Cash Money is notorious for not doing right by its artists and business partners.

Birdman's ruthless, take-no-prisoners negotiation style helped him get that deal. But they kept that same energy with other business partners and artists. With No Limit, Master P showed us that great deals can be secured without doing wrong by his people.

Watch the full interview with Wallo and Birdman here.

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Twitter and Billboard's New Chart

Last week, Billboard and Twitter announced a new ranking chart based on Twitter conversations.

The most talked-about Twitter topic. According to Sarah Rosen, Twitter's head of entertainment partnerships, music is the most popular topic of conversation. No surprise there, big album releases feel like an event on Twitter.

Watch the skew. But Twitter, like all platforms, has its demographic skews. Twitter is the sweet spot for 30-40+ year olds. It's older than Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok—the driving force behind the Billboard Hot 100. It also skews heavily male, nearly 70%! Most other apps are majority female. Twitter is also Blacker than most apps at 24% of all users.

As a Black male in his 30s who loves music and works in media, I'm at home. These are my people, as ridiculous as they are. But I can see the blind spots, especially in hip-hop:

• young rappers who appeal to young fans. For instance, Lil' Uzi Vert is one of the biggest rappers in the world right now. Huge fanbase. But his influence is understated since his audience isn't really on Twitter like that
• women in hip-hop. Need I say more?

On the flipside, Twitter over-indexes on old head rappers. The Griselda artists will resonate much more on Twitter than any other platform.

I'm still intrigued by the results! It makes sense for Twitter to track this. This Billboard partnership can generate good ad dollars if the stats are compelling.

Let's hope we never see a LinkedIn Billboard chart though! Can you imagine??

Read more about the new chart in Billboard.​

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Coming soon from Trapital

• Trapital Podcast: James Lindsay - founder of Rap Snacks, Boss Up Bank, and Meek Mill's co-manager. We talk about the growth of Rap Snacks, getting distribution in Walmart, and a lot more
• New Essay: on the big three major record labels: Universal, Sony, and Warner. Drops soon!

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