Crown: Roc Nation Milestones
The label that Hov built has made major league moves.
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Crown: Roc Nation Milestones - Roc with him, you know he got it. The label that Hovito built has three number one albums in a row since Wale got his first No. 1 with The Gifted, J. Cole's Born Sinner moved up to the top slot in its second week and Magna Carta Holy Grail debuted with 527,000 units pushed in its first official Billboard week. That kind of monopoly on the summer games is as epic as a Salisbury Cathedral display. Click on to map out the major league Roc Nation milestones that got us here.(Photos: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images; IconicPix/WENN.com; John Ricard/BET)
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Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail Debuts at No. 1 - As La Familia's head honcho, Jay-Z leads by example (#newrules). His Magna Carta Holy Grail gave him his first No. 1 on the U.K. charts, his 13th No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and demolished the record for Spotify's first-week streaming tallies. This, after it was already certified platinum by the Samsung deal, which had it circulating (and leaking) a week before its official release. It also made hip hop history, giving the genre its first-ever 4-week run atop the Billboard charts following No. 1's from his affiliates Kanye, Wale and J. Cole.(Photo: Raymond Hall/FilmMagic)
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J. Cole's "Power Trip" Gets Certified Platinum - J. Cole was the first Roc Nation signee and he's definitely on deck to score. Twenty-one weeks on the chart and his "Power Trip" still has a strong surge, moving up from No. 21 to its current peak of No. 19 on Billboard's Hot 100 (noted July 17). The Born Sinner lead single, featuring "Adorn" crooner Miguel, gave Cole his second platinum certification for digital sales. His first was "Work Out," which went 2x platinum. (Photo: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)
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J. Cole's Born Sinner Goes No. 1 - It was surprising that Jay would have allowed J. Cole to change his release date to compete with 'Ye's Yeezus. It seemed like sales suicide. But in its third weeks on the charts, instead of a downward flow, Born Sinner moved up and took the No. 1 spot. Only 13% of Billboard's No. 1's have made a power trip like that.(Photos: Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for BET; Roc Nation)
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J. Cole Debuts at No. 1 With Cole World - J. Cole wasn't just sitting on the bench anticipating the release of Born Sinner, though. His debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, debuted at No. 1 as well, pushing 218,000 in his first week ever as a commercial artist.(Photo: John Ricard/BET; Roc Nation)
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Wale Gets His First No. 1 With The Gifted - Roc Nation signee Wale has ambition that don't quit. After his undershipped Interscope record (Attention Deficit) opened at No. 21 on the Billboard charts, he had been widely counted out of the top-runners. But a label switch to MMG/Warner Bros. helped move his sophomore album to a No. 2 opening week; and by his third, The Gifted, that love/hate thing balanced out in his favor, giving him his first No. 1 debut.(Photos: John Ricard/BET; Roc Nation)
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Jay and NY Gets First No. 1 Single With "Empire State of Mind" - The Blueprint III's "Empire State of Mind" (featuring Alicia Keys) not only picked up two Grammy Awards ("Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" and "Best Rap Song"), but it also gave Jay his fist No. 1 single as a lead artist and, fittingly, it also became the first No. 1 on the Hot 100 to reference New York in its title. It stayed in that No. 1 spot for five consecutive weeks and atop the radio play charts for eight consecutive weeks.(Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
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Jay's Magna Carta...Holy Grail Goes Platinum - Numbers don't lie, check the scoreboard. When Samsung bought 1 million units of Magna Carta Holy Grail to deliver as an exclusive to their Galaxay users, it made the record instantly platinum, and the RIAA agreed, changing its digital rules in time to deliver a shiny new plaque to Hova before it was even available for Billboard charting.(Photo: Courtesy of the RIAA via Facebook)
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Rihanna's Unapolgetic Goes No. 1 - Add another number one for the Roc Nation team. Jay's groomed Rihanna since she was a teenager, and now that she's unabashadely a Bad Gal, she can boast that her seventh studio album, Unapologetic, is her first to debut atop the U.S. charts. It is also her third No. 1 in the UK, her fourth No. 1 in Norway, and her fifth No. 1 is Switzerland. Phresh.(Photos: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Def Jam Records)
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Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" Goes Platinum - Willow Smith may have made her acting debut in her dad's blockbuster hit I Am Legend, but that did not guarentee a noteworthy career shift to music. It seems only Roc Nation could do that. After she independently released her first single, "Whip My Hair" to the Internet, Jay's label picked her up and helped her move more than 1.2 million digital units in the U.S. alone.(Photo: Courtesy of Roc Nation)
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Rihanna and Jay-Z Get a Grammy for "Umbrella" - Most prophetic of the Roc Nation milestones, perhaps, was "Umbrella." Though technically released under Def Jam, it was the first sign of Jay's pop sensibilities. Now, Ri Ri has the most Grammy wins in the "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" of all the female artists to be nominated in the category. The first of those wins was with this infectious "ella, ella, ay, ay" and a verse from Jay.(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Melanie Fiona Gets Two Grammy Awards - Melanie Fiona is a shining example of the Nation's ability to push international artists. Though she was in a group with Drake and released a reggae song under the stage name Syren Hall, it wasn't until she signed with the Roc that she released her debut album and got her first Grammy Award nod (for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance"). That was 2009. By 2012, she was placed on Cee-Lo Green's "Fool For You" off his third studio album, and with him she picked up two Grammy wins ("Best Traditional R&B Performance" and "Best R&B Song").(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)