This week saw the debut of Snoop Dogg's Pharrell-helmed funk opus, which had a pretty modest opening, placing at number 14. While Tech N9ne blew us away with his top 5 debut last week, he fell considerably this cycle, moving all the way down to number 20. As for the rest of the rap releases, almost everything has been slowly descending the charts incrementally. We're hoping to see another big album over the summer to breathe some life back into the rap charts, and possibly give Drake some competition in the race to be the first platinum rap album of 2015 (or 2014 for that matter).
1) Various Artists— Furious 7: While it seemed destined to slip out of the top ten, the Furious 7 soundtrack actually makes a mild leap this week, moving from 7 to 5. It sells 9,262 units (40,525 with streams).
2) Snoop Dogg— BUSH: Snoop wasn't able to break the top ten with his BUSH debut, instead settling for number 14. While the record is packed with summer singles, none connected enough to give the release much hype. It moves 27,227 copies (32,085 with streams).
3) Drake—If You're Reading This It's Too Late: The burst cause by the physical release of Drizzy's mixtape has simmered down, with the rapper falling from 13 to 15 this week. He still has the highest selling rap project of 2015 (besting every 2014 rap album as well), with 908,432 copies sold. This week he managed to sell 11,921 copies (27,974 with streams).
4) Tech N9ne—Special Effects: As acts with cult-like fanbases tend to do, Tech takes a big fall in his second week, moving from 4 to 20. Still, selling an additional 14,179 copies (18,960 with streams) is pretty impressive for an independent artist. He's at 72,567 total sales thus far.
5) Nicki Minaj—The Pinkprint: The Pinkprint continues to pull in numbers through streaming, adding up to 17,327 this week, but only 3,697 in traditional sales. It's totaling at 614,368 so far.
6) Kendrick Lamar—To Pimp A Butterfly: K-Dot moves up for the first time since falling from number one, gaining one spot from 28 to 27 this week. He's moved 15,142 copies of TPAB this week, including streams.
7) Rae Sremmurd—Sremmlife: The Sremm bros continue their gradual re-ascent up the charts, moving from 33 to 29 this week. If the meme-inspired summer jam, "This Could Be Us" blows up the way it should, this trend may continue. They came through with 5,787 sold this week, and 14,242 with streams. The album is sitting at 122,000 total sales.
8) Big Sean—Dark Sky Paradise: Sean falls one spot this week from 32 to 33. He moves 3,876 copies (13,247 with streams). DSP has sold a total of 272,396 copies.
9) Empire—Season 1 OST: The Empire OST is still moving a decent number of copies in traditional sales, hitting 9,263 this week, and 12,899 including streams. It still falls a good 9 spots from 25 to 34.
The top of the Hot 100 has remained consistent over the last few weeks, with Wiz reigning at the top spot, while Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" is nipping at his heels. A serious threat awaits the charts, however, as Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar's "Bad Blood" has snuck in at 53 within only a few days. As we know, the video set a VEVO record, which will be counted as streams toward its placement. We could very well see Kendrick in the top ten next week. Speaking of new entries, DJ Khaled's "How Many Times' makes its debut at 74, and may be around for a while this summer.