While Yelawolf managed a big debut this week, topping his previous album peak of 27 by hitting number 3 on the Billboard 200, rap lost a fair bit of ground. While Wale started off strong with a number one debut, he's fallen 10 or more spots every subsequent week, coming in this cycle at 31. Young Thug is also having a pretty rough time, failing to make the top 20 last week, and now falling to 44. Many of the other big albums stayed put for the most part, with Drake being the biggest gainer on account of the physical release of his "Mixtape".
Take a look at the stats for the top rap albums below.
1) Various Artists— Furious 7: With Alabama Shakes debuting at the top spot. The Furious & OSt spends another week at number 2. Wiz Khalifa's hit single, "See You Again" still leads the Hot 100, and helps the compilation move another 62,445 units (18,225 excluding streams), with a total of 144,867 in sales.
2) Yelawolf—Love Story: Yelawolf has this week's biggest rap debut, coming in at number 3. The rapper's last album, Radioactive reached a peak of 27, so this is a big look for him, bringing in 58,241 copies, almost entirely in traditional sales, (51,472 excluding streams).
3) Drake—If You're Reading This It's Too Late: As expected Drake's latest has experienced a spike this week after getting a physical release, it jumps from 10 to 4 with 47,965 (27,806 excluding streams). He's dangerously close to platinum status with a total of 862,962 units moved.
4) Kendrick Lamar—To Pimp A Butterfly:Kendrick remains at number 14 this week, moving another 21,849 units (14,374 excluding streams). He's working with 546,653 total sales thus far.
5) Empire—Season 1 OST: The soundtrack from the massively popular new show falls from 15 to 19 this week, but considering it hasn't aired in a month, the sales are still pretty solid for this one, selling a total of 333,155 units so far.
6) Nicki Minaj—The Pinkprint: Nicki falls from 19 to 21 this week, and we're still waiting on her soon-to-be-massive "Night Is Still Young" single to impact and drive the album back up the charts. Total Sales for the Pinkprint are 602,498.
7) Big Sean—Dark Sky Paradise: Big Sean is up one spot this wekk, moving from 23 to 22, but remains one slot below Minaj. His total sales are at 259,252, and while "Blessed" continues to chart, he'll need another hit to get him speeding along to gold status.
8) Flo Rida—My House: Flo Rida's 3rd week on the chart finds him falling out of the top 30, moving 14,867 copies of his new EP, almost entirely in streams (only 1,448 without).
9) Wale—The Album About Nothing: Wale has fallen at least 10 spot every week since debuting at number one, and this week is no exception, with TAAN falling from 21 to 33. He managed to sell 14,620 copies (9,855 excluding streams) for a grand total of 138,253.
There are some exciting prospects in this week's Hot 100. While "Trap Queen" previously appeared to have peaked, it's now moved up to number 3, making us hopeful for a potential number one for Fetty Wap. Meanwhile, Omarion's "Post To Be" has been quietly making a vie for the top ten, moving from 15 to 13 this week (anything that gets "eat the booty like groceries" out to the masses should be encouraged). Elsewhere, T-Wayne's "Nasty Freestyle" continues its domination of Vine, jumping off of its impressive debut at 43 all the way to 17. This could be the beginning of something special.