J. Cole's longtime manager Ibrahim “IB” Hamad says that ticket sales are the most accurate way to determine an artist's popularity, as opposed to sales, views, followers, or any other metric. Hamad detailed his stance on the matter with a tweet, Saturday.
"To me Ticket sales is the truest gauge of impact in music," he explained. "You can fake streams, album sales, YouTube views, followers, bundles, you can have 30 songs to boost your streams. But you can’t fake people being at a show, which is why I love seeing the work pay off when a tour goes up."
Wale popped up in the comments to state: "U know how we Pullin up."
Hamad's tweet comes days after Cole announced The Off-Season Tour, which is set to kick off in September. Check out the full list of tour stops down below.
Fri Sep 24 – Miami, FL – FTX Arena
Sat Sep 25 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center
Mon Sep 27 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
Tue Sep 28 – Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Coliseum Complex
Wed Sep 29 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
Fri Oct 01 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Sat Oct 02 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
Mon Oct 04 – Washington DC – Capital One Arena
Tue Oct 05 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Thu Oct 07 – Chicago, IL – United Center
Sun Oct 10 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
Mon Oct 11 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Arena
Thu Oct 14 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
Sat Oct 16 – Las Vegas – MGM Grand Garden Arena
Sun Oct 17 – Phoenix, AZ – Phoenix Suns Arena
Wed Oct 20 – Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena
Thu Oct 21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum