This past week has been pretty interesting for the Billboard 200. Following the Grammys and more recently, the Super Bowl, we've seen several artists gain substantial increases in sales. First, the song that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed at the Grammys, "Same Love", as we reported earlier this week, saw a crazy increase in sales of 350%, while their album, The Heist, saw a 62% increase. But it's not just the winners that are benefiting-- Kendrick Lamar has been receiving more love than usual as his GKMC has moved up the charts with an 81% sales increase. In fact, according to Nielsen SoundScan, overall album sales are up by 8% compared to last week (physical CD sales have also increased by 5% this week). In addition to these increases, we found randomly enough or perhaps not randomly at all, that Eminem's first MMLP has made it's way up to #52 after a long stint down in the 100-200s of the Billboard 200. Other interesting re-entries on the Billboard 200 this week include Kanye West & Biggie, but read more on that below.
1) Beyonce— Beyonce: Bey has descended a spot this week, dropping to #5, after keeping the #4 spot locked two weeks in a row. This past week the Queen Bey moved 48,000 copies of her self-titled release, and brought her total sales up to 1,668,000, as she continues on her way to the 2 mill mark.
2) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis continue to grind back up the Billboard 200, which is familiar territory for these two. Following their Grammy performance, their sales have definitely increased, not only album-wise but single-wise (“Same Love” increased in sales by %350). After 69 weeks the two find themselves at #11, rising up from #14. They sold 29,000 copies—an increase in sales of 62%. Total sales of 1,316,000.
3) Eminem— The Marshall Mathers LP 2: Marshall Mathers fell five spots this week, down to #15 after spending 13 weeks on the Billboard 200. The rapper moved another 21,000 units, as he brought his total sales up to 1,891,000.
4) Drake—Nothing Was The Same: Toronto’s own Drake has remained stagnant at his #17 spot this week. He moved 16,000 copies of the album, bringing total sales up to 1,433,000.
5) Kendrick Lamar— good kid, m.A.A.d city: Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city has been riding a recent wave of success despite not having won a Grammy. While K. Dot isn’t quite as far up on the charts at Macklemore & Ryan Lewis currently are, he’s not too far behind either, at #21. The Compton emcee made the move up from his initial jump last week at #33. He’s been charting for 67 weeks and sold another 15,000 (up 81%) copies of GKMC. Total sales for the album are 1,166,000.
6) Justin Timberlake— The 20/20 Experience 2: JT rose up one spot over the past seven days, taking the small leap from #25 to #24. The singer’s second release in 2013 went on to sell just under 14,000 units this week, which is an increase in sales of 19%.
7) R. Kelly— Black Panties: Kellz enjoyed a few weeks near the top of the Billboard 200, but now he’s fallen to down to #38. The singer’s latest piece of work sold around 10k, which was a drop in sales of 3%.
8) Isaiah Rashad— Cilvia Demo: TDE’s Chattanooga native, Isaiah Rashad, released his first official project through the label the other week. The EP has debuted on the Billboard 200 this week, which is a pretty impressive feat. It debuted at #40, moving 8,534 over the course of a week. Compare Isaiah’s debut to that of Ty Dolla $ign’s last week, at #51.
9) Jhene Aiko— Sail Out EP: Jhene Aiko’s Sail Out EP has been both up and down on the Billboard 200. This week she’s down again, dropping from #40 to #48. The singer who has been charting for 11 weeks now, moved slightly under 7,000 units this past week, which was a drop of 5%.
10) Eminem—The Marshall Mathers LP: Well, this seems kind of random. But sure enough, Eminem’s first and critically acclaimed MMLP has popped up on the Billboard 200 again. The album was high up on the charts back when MMLP2 first dropped, but since then it’s fallen off a little. This week it’s back at #52, having sold 6,700 copies. Total sales for this album are an amazing 10,818,000. Do you have any theories for its appearance here?
11) Kid Ink—My Own Lane: Kid Ink continues to carve out his own lane with his debut effort. The album is currently making its way down the Billboard 200, having fallen to #58 this week. Ink still pushed out 6,100 copies of the RCA debut, making his total sales 79,000.
In related sales news, although Bruno Mars isn’t exactly hip-hop and we tend to refrain from posting about him, two of his albums saw a very large sales increase following Super Bowl Sunday. Unorthodox Jukebox jumped up by 180% while Doo-Wops & Hooligans had an astounding 303% increase in sales. This week Childish Gambino’s Because The Internet fell down to #64 having moved less than 6k. As we approach the anniversary of Kanye West’s College Dropout (February 10) the album has actually re-entered the Billboard 200 at #100, while Ye’s latest, Yeezus, has rose up from #185 to #114.Another album that has re-entered the Billboard 200 this past week was The Notorious B.I.G’s posthumous Life After Death, at #171.
Infographic by HotNewHipHop
