Eight months after launching 300 Entertainment, principals Lyor Cohen, Todd Moscowitz and Kevin Liles are toasting their first No. 1 album: Closer by 25-year-old Mike Stud.
The college baseball pitcherturned-rapper surprised chartwatchers when he topped Billboard’s Rap Albums tally in the issue dated July 26 with 15,000 in first-week sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Equally impressive: Stud’s out-of-nowhere debut, distributed via WEA/Atlantic, came without the benefit of a costly radio campaign, because the deal closed so quickly. Instead, Closer was powered by the title track’s 300,000 YouTube views, a Pandora pre-release album stream, and a 33-city national tour.
“Mike is developing a strong base the old-fashioned way,” says Cohen, “Growing it city to city, one venue at a time.”…