A trip down memory lane

Hi,

J. Cole has been a large topic of conversation in the hip-hop world the last few weeks with the release of his audio series “Inevitable” in tandem with the commercial release of his early projects.

The campaign continued last weekend when J. Cole announced a 10 year anniversary show at MSG in NYC this December for what many consider to be his breakthrough album “2014 Forest Hills Drive”.

Cole is putting on a brilliant display of nostalgia marketing - creating moments and conversation by leveraging older music and bringing his audience back to the early moments in his career that first introduced them to him.

I thought it’d be worth breaking down exactly how the campaign is shaping up and why it’s working so well.

This newsletter highlights:

• J. Cole’s nostalgia marketing over the last few weeks

• 10 music industry job roles

Let’s dive in ⬇️

1) Inevitable Audio Series

I can’t lie…as a J. Cole fan stuff like this gets me excited! A few weeks ago J. Cole announced the launch of a new audio series called “Inevitable” with his manager + business partner Ib.

Essentially in the form of a podcast, Cole + Ib sat down with their frequent collaborator Scott Lazer to share stories about the early + pivotal moments of Cole’s career that helped him achieve the massive success we know him for today.

While the series is divided into chapters organized and titled by songs and project titles, the recordings themselves are format-less and free flowing. It feels intimate, personal, and like you’re in the room listening to close friends share stories of their come up, journey, and success.

I’m only on Episode 3 (The Warm Up) but one of my favorite parts about the series is how genuinely excited Cole + Ib get recounting stories and remembering the journey. There’s always an innate feeling of gratitude, appreciation, and almost disbelief at how far he’s come and the pivotal moments that happened that helped accelerate his career.

From making the big move to NYC and attending college at St. Johns to standing outside for hours waiting for the chance to give Jay-Z his CD, Cole’s voice is full of genuine excitement and emotion at every step of the journey. It’s really refreshing.

As someone who’s forgetful one of the things that I find most remarkable is how good their memories are. Cole + Ib remember meetings and moments with specific people almost 15 years ago and recount it as if it was yesterday. For someone who’s experienced so much and probably met so many people along the journey, having such a vidid memory was impressive to me.

The audio series also sheds light on little known stories that hit home for any J. Cole fan - for example, how the phrase “Dollar and a Dream” came to be.

It was also a great example of collecting audience data - requiring fans to sign up with their e-mail or phone # to access the episodes. Cole probably amassed tens of thousands of sign-ups to his mailing list, if not more.

2) Commercial release of older music

In tandem with the launch of each new episode of “Inevitable”, J. Cole released that respective’s episode’s project on official streaming services.

For example, “The Come Up” episode aired on November 18th and 1 day later, on November 19th, the mixtape was available on all streaming services.

Besides being a smart business play and adding more music to his catalog (though I’d imagine clearing the samples was fairly expensive), what better way to bring your fans down memory lane than give them an insider’s perspective on the making of their favorite projects and then make those projects available to all modern day streaming services one day later.