page_title: Born Sinner
section_title: Promotion
hierarchical_section_title: Born Sinner / Promotion
caption_attribution_description: Nas at a concert in Ottawa, 2007.
context_page_description: Born Sinner is the second studio album by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on June 18, 2013, by ByStorm Entertainment, Columbia Records, Dreamville Records and Roc Nation. The album serves as the follow-up to his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story. The album features guest appearances from Miguel, Amber Coffman, Jhené Aiko, James Fauntleroy, Bas, TLC, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent. The album was also primarily produced by Cole himself, along with others such as Jake One, Syience, and Elite.
  Born Sinner was supported by four official singles; "Power Trip", "Crooked Smile", "Forbidden Fruit" and "She Knows", along with the promotional single "Miss America". The album received generally positive reviews from critics. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 297,000 copies in its first week of release. After two weeks of being at number two, Born Sinner climbed to number one in its third week. The album has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. As of December 2016, the album has sold 796,000 copies in the United States.
context_section_description: J. Cole announced a release date of January 28, 2013, (his birthday) along with the album name on November 9, 2012. In early January the album was included on multiple "Most Anticipated Albums of 2013" such as MTV and XXL ranked Born Sinner the sixth most anticipated album of 2013. After describing the January release date as ambitious, he would announce on New Years Day 2013 that the album would be coming out at a later date. On February 22, 2013, J. Cole said that the album should arrive around June 2013. He later would confirm a release month for June, and then on April 8, 2013, J. Cole announced via Twitter that the album would be released on June 25, 2013. Interesting enough, that date would have been the seventeenth anniversary of the release of Jay-Z's debut album Reasonable Doubt. However, he announced on May 20, 2013, via his Twitter account that he would move the release up one week to June 18, 2013. He later revealed that he moved up the release date to coincide with the release of Kanye West's album Yeezus, saying "Instantly the lightbulb [turned on]… it got real. I was like, 'Yo…' The idea hit me instantly: 'You got to go to that date. I'm not going to sit [here]… I worked too hard to come a week later after Kanye West drops an amazing album. It'd be like, 'Oh and J. Cole dropped too, a week later.' Nah. I'm going to go see him on that date. He's the greatest. So it's like, I'm a competitor by nature so it was instant, it wasn't even a thought."
  On February 12, 2013, Cole released a free EP titled Truly Yours in promotion of the album. The EP consists of five songs in their "raw form" that he knew would not make the cutlist for Born Sinner. Later on April 29, he announced that he would be releasing Truly Yours 2 the following day. The EP featured guest appearances by 2 Chainz, Young Jeezy and Bas, with production from Canei Finch, Jake One and J. Cole himself. Cole announced the deluxe version of the album will include an extra CD which will double as Truly Yours 3 and featuring 5 new songs. The track features 50 Cent and Bas, which Cole originally wanted to have 50 and Nas on the song.
  J. Cole said there is a lot he wants to do that he didn't get to do on his last album because the label didn't know that he was going to come out and have the number-one album in the country so this time he hopes the promotion effort is way bigger. He plans to shoot a short film to accompany the album as well as multiple music videos. In promotion of the album Cole released several Born Sinner vlogs, the first video spotlighted Cole's mother and her former job of working at the post office, and her retirement. The second video spotlighted friend and frequent collaborator Kendrick Lamar. In the video he discusses his earliest musical influences and his work ethic. On June 6, 2013, J. Cole held one time listen sessions for the album in various places throughout North America. The following day the album leaked in full online via various peer-to-peer file sharing websites. Rather than go into crisis mode and attempt to remove it from online, Cole put the album up for a limited time free stream. Cole and Nas released "Let Nas Down (Remix)" on June 22, 2013. The remix was named one of the best songs of the first half of 2013 by Complex. On July 29, 2013, Cole announced What Dreams May Come Tour with fellow rapper Wale.
caption: Rapper Nas was the inspiration behind the track "Let Nas Down", Nas also remixed the track.
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