J.COLE GOES LIVE

J. Cole is steadily building on that momentum; first with the powerful HBO documentary/live performance special Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming, which debuted earlier this month. Now comes the music.

The Roc Nation/Columbia superstar dropped a live album at midnight as a companion piece to the HBO event. The release also coincides with Cole's 30th birthday, which is today (1/28).

There will be physical product, but don’t look for it at Target, which has the odd policy of not stocking "live" albums.

The Grammy-nominated artist is among a small group of hip-hop stars who've achieved a recent platinum-selling album, as he did with 2014 Forest Hills Drive last year.