This past week The Weeknd dominated the charts, although he was outshone only by country star Keith Urban. The race between the country star and r'n'b star was a close one, with 3,000 units making the difference for the #1 spot on the Billboard 200. The race was so close, in fact, that Drizzy and The Weeknd prematurely celebrated, when Drake congratulated his friend at his recent L.A. show. Although the Toronto native didn't lock down the #1 spot, congratulations are still definitely in order, as he neared the 100k mark for sales, topping his sales for Trilogy and thus proving his growth. The same cannot be said for 2 Chainz, who dropped his album on the same day as The Weeknd. B.O.A.T.S. II: #METime did not top Tity Boi's previous effort, in fact, it did abysmally worse than his debut. That's not a good sign for the rapper, who previously dominated the charts for weeks on end with Based On A T.R.U. Story. Will The Weeknd be able to hold on to a top spot when next week arrives, and Drake drops his album? Will Tity 2 Necklace fall off completely? And we also have to consider MMG's Self Made Vol. 3 briefly, which dropped this past week and has similarly low sales projections as 2 Chainz did (50-55k)-- also considerably lower than Self Made Vol. 2 (98k). Is MMG falling off, or was the album not properly promoted?
1) The Weeknd—Kiss Land: The Weeknd was thissss close to nabbing a #1 debut. He was so close, that at one point in time, he actually thought he had the #1 album in the country and celebrated a tad early on Twitter. Although his album is in fact the #2 album in the country, that’s still pretty damn good. The r’n’b singer fell short of #1 by 3,000 copies (Keith Urban beat him out, if you’re wondering). Abel Tesfaye’s debut album sold 95,000 units opening week, as projected.
2) 2 Chainz—B.O.A.T.S. II: #METime: Tity Boi also debuts on the charts this week, right below The Weeknd at #3. This album has, unfortunately, sold just as much as projected, which isn’t very much. The rapper’s sophomore effort on Def Jam moved 63,000 units—Based On A T.R.U. Story debuted at #1 and moved more than twice that amount, with 147,000. Does this reflect the quality of the album or a loss 2 Chainz fans? Or what’s the reason here?
3) Janelle Monae—Electric Lady: The Electric Lady aka Janelle Monae didn’t too shabby with her first week sales. The singer sold 47,000 units, landing her a #5 debut on the Billboard 200. It’s definitely better than her debut album, which dropped in 2010 and debuted at #17, only moving 21,000 units opening week.
4) John Legend—Love In The Future: We have quite a few r’n’bers on the charts this week. John Legend’s new album, Love In The Future, dropped from a #5 debut to #10 on the Billboard 200. The G.O.O.D. Music singer moved another 30,000 units, down in sales by 55%.
5) Robin Thicke—Blurred Lines: Robin Thicke’s album Blurred Lines seems to have done the trick to get him on the radar of pop enthusiasts. The album’s been strong on the charts, but this week he dropped from #14 to #7. The artist still moved another 19k, dropping in sales by 65%.
6) Jay Z—Magna Carta Holy Grail: Hov, who recently topped Forbes’ highest-earning couples’ list with his boo thing Beyonce, continues to rake an excess of money from MCHG. This week the album kept put at #18, but still sold a solid 17,000 units. His total album sales are nearing the 1 million mark (that’s not counting those Samsung sales) at 974,000 units.
7) Juicy J—Stay Trippy: Juicy J’s long awaited solo debut dropped further down the charts this week from #15 to #28. After three weeks on the Billboard 200, the rapper sold 13,000 copies of Stay Trippy, bringing his total tally up to 99,000 units.
8) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis dropped down three more spots this week, from #27 to #30. After charting for 49 weeks the duo sold 12,000 copies of The Heist, which is a drop in sales of 27%. Oh yeah, “Thrift Shop” went 7x platinum this past week—just another day in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ life. Their total album sales are 1,069,000.
9) Justin Timberlake—The 20/20 Experience: Justin Timberlake comes in right below Macklemore this week, at #31, which is actually a pretty big drop from last week’s #9. With the second installment arriving in the near future, we may see 2x JT on here. For now, Justin sold another 10,000 units, a 74% decrease in sales.
10) Big Sean—Hall Of Fame: Big Sean’s Hall Of Fame may not be clinging to the charts for too long if it continues dropping like it has been. This week the rapper fell from #24 to #36, after just three weeks. The album still sold 9,000 copies this week, making a grand total of 99,000 units.
This week Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed debut dropped from #55 to #63, and sold 6,000 units, as the "Control" controversy subsides. Below Kendrick is his good friend J. Cole, with Born Sinner dropping from #61 to #69. After a brief and slight resurgence, Kanye West's Yeezus dropped from #69 to #83. Although Sean Kingston dropped a new album, Back 2 Life, on September 10th, the album has obviously done very poorly-- it didn't chart anywhere on the Billboard 200. Word is, it sold around 2,000 copies.