As you're counting down the top artist of 2015, don't forget J. Cole. Approaching the 1 year anniversary of the release of his 2014 Forest Hills Drive release, Cole has experienced the biggest year of his career. The follow-up Forest Hills Drive world tour to his platinum album kicked off March 2015, visiting small, big and international cities. The tour ranked in over $20million across 600,000 plus fans. One special night made the cut to air a special segment on HBO January 9th.
Of any show he's performed until this point, this particular performance meant the most. His first homecoming performance was the last stop on the tour, August 29th. It's hard to imagine, after getting signed to Roc Nation and gaining major attention after releasing his mixtape Friday Night Lights in 2010 J. Cole hadn't performed in Fayetteville, NC. 2014 Forest Hills Drive created a movement of finding true happiness, loving yourself, those around you and remembering where you came from. The timing couldn't have been planned any better for a more perfect time for J. Cole to cease the right time to return home.
The show featured the tours artist Cozz, Bas, Omen, YG, Jeremih, Big Sean and two special guest Jay Z and Drake. While everyone was busy covering Cole's first time selling out Madison Square Garden in New York, Staples Center in LA and all his other major city shows, we knew the homecoming performance would be special. Amongst the very few media outlets present in the small city of Fayetteville, we were there live to cover the action play by play.
If you know anything about being from a small town, you can only imagine what the energy was like that night. In case you missed that night read our review here.
Watch HBO's official trailer for the concert documentary below:
(Photo: Farrin Hymon, FH411)
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