Chances are Colt Ford is walking around with a big ol’ smile spread across his face today. The country rapper’s fourth studio album, ‘Declaration of Independence,’ hit stores last week, and the numbers are in. Fans proved once again that they love them some Colt Ford — the album debuted at No. 1 on the country album’s chart.

The new collection of tunes also came in at No. 5 on the all-genre charts, giving Ford the highest album debut of his career, as well as an all-time high for his independent record label, Average Joes Entertainment.

“I just can’t thank my fans enough for making this record No. 1,” says Ford. “I believed this was my best album yet, and my fans have just proved I was right. Today is a great day, and I am so blessed.”

The album has already received rave reviews from the big guy’s music peers, which gives the Georgia native yet another reason to smile. Ford’s fellow country artists have been pushing the album, too — some of whom are included in on the project and some who simply just love and support Ford.

“I cannot say how much that means to me and how humbling it is when those artists — artists that I have such huge amount of respect for [and] that I’m a fan of and I’m friends with — support me,” Ford says graciously.

‘Declaration of Independence’ has a wide array of major musical talent sewn into the project, including Jake Owen, Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, LoCash Cowboys, Jerrod Niemann, Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley.

“A bunch of them sent out messages, which is awesome,” Ford notes of his friends’ involvement. “But when guys that don’t have anything to do with the record do it, it just blows me away. That’s why I’m a country artist. That’s why I love the country genre more than anything in the world because that’s what we do. We help one another.”

The first release from ‘Declaration of Independence’ is Ford’s collaboration with Jake Owen, titled ‘Back.’

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