J. Cole is Now Officially Streaming “Born Sinner”, Let the Debate Begin Posted by Nathan S. on 06/07/13 | Filed under Top Stories, J. Cole, Debates, Streams

Now, I normally wouldn't do this, but these aren't normal circumstances. As anyone with an internet connection and an even passing interest in hip-hop undoubtedly already knows, J. Cole's "Born Sinner" album leaked late last night. That's not the unusual part, that's about as predictable as Gucci Mane catching a drug charge. What is unusual, though, is Cole's response:

Thank you for the love. Rather than acting like the leak didn't happen, here's the official album stream for those who haven't heard it.

— J. Cole (@JColeNC) June 7, 2013

bornsinner.comAlbum streaming now. In stores June 18th.

— J. Cole (@JColeNC) June 7, 2013

That's right, Cole apparently figured fuck it, it's out there, if people are going to listen to it early we might as well have them listen to it on our turf instead of via some shady share site link. It's a smart move, and one that major labels of course NEVER do, so I wonder how the folks at Roc Nation are feeling about Cole right now.

In the same spirit, I know a lot of you already have the album, and a lot more will check out the official stream, so fuck it, we might as well start talking about the album now. (Full disclosure: As of writing this I haven't listened to it.)

One huge asterisk though. As of right now, bornsinner.com crashed from all the traffic, because of course it did. Can't really fault Cole for that, I don't think a full stream was part of the plan, more like a bandwidth corner he was forced into. So if you try to click right now, you're shit out of luck. But I'm assuming that in a couple hours, or at least by this weekend, it'll be back up and running. Regardless, we now have an eleven day jump on the official release.

As for how this will affect album sales...frankly I have no idea, it'll be a fascinating experiment. I'm a firm believer that streams increase album sales, I'd expect his pre-orders to skyrocket as people listen, but you want to start that stream a day or two away from the official release, not two weeks.

We shall see. In the meantime, is this better than "Cole World"? Is it the album he's capable of? Does he have a shot at challenging Kanye? I'm expecting the comment section to blow the fuck up in 5, 4, 3....

Enjoy...

UPDATE: Looks like the stream's working now.
UPDATE 2: Full stream is now below.