This week we see Ne-Yo make his grand entrance on the Billboard 200 with Non-Fiction, and we're also analyzing Lupe Fiasco and Joey Bada$$ in their second week out. As we saw last week, Joey Bad started off strong with a #5 debut, much higher than Lupe's Tetsuo & Youth. However was that just hype for his first week out? This week we're seeing Joey make quite steep drop to #41, and although Lupe has dropped as well, he's actually coming in slightly higher than B4.DA.$$. Being a veteran, Lupe could definitely end up doing more sales in the longterm. Interestingly enough though, it appears as though SremmLife could hold out the longest out of these three relatively new releases. After debuting four weeks ago, and peaking at #5, Rae Sremmurd are making a slow but steady climb down, dropping just three spots this week. Older releases like The Pinkprint and 2014 Forest Hills Drive are still holding strong positions on the 200, but they're both in a lane of their own-- with J. Cole nearing platinum certification, and Nicki Minaj nearing half a million sales. Take a look below.
1) Ne-Yo—Non-Fiction: Ne-Yo’s new album made its Billboard 200 debut this week, entering at #5. The singer makes a solid debut, moving 59,475 units opening week including streams (sales: 48,666).
2) Nicki Minaj—The Pinkprint: Nicki Minaj is finally beginning her descent on the charts, with The Pinkprint dropping from #6 to #8, after charting for seven weeks. Nicki’s numbers this week were basically half streams and half sales, as she did 48,457 copies (sales: 20,424). Her total number is now 466,453.
3) J. Cole— 2014 Forest Hills Drive: J. Cole’s album continues to do well on the charts. The album actually climbed up two spots this week, to land at #14. 2014 Forest Hills Drive moved 28,904, including streams, but that number is largely coming from his sales (sales: 19,746). His grand tally climbs up to 728,240.
4) Pitbull— Globalization: Yup he’s still here. Pop-rapper Pitbull is staying afloat largely because of all his single streams—his numbers for Globalization this week were 16,835, however a small fraction of that was legitimate album sales (sales: 3,821). His total number is still pretty low, at 105,174. Nonetheless, his position is at #26 this week. He definitely owes a big thank you to Billboard for now including streaming data, amirite?
5) Rae Sremmurd— SremmLife: SremmLife drops a few spots this week to #27. The energetic brothers were able to move and stream another 16,314 units (sales: 6,117), which brought their total sales to 59,272.
6) Lupe Fiasco—Tetsuo & Youth: After making his debut on the charts at #14 last week, Tetsuo & Youth has fallen to #38. Lupe’s new album moved 12,941 units in its second week on shelves (sales: 10,851), which brought his total sales to just over 50k, 50,132.
7) Joey Bada$$— B4.DA.$$: JozifBadMon’s debut album started off strong at #5, but he hasn’t been able to hold on very well in the second week. His second week out finds him dropping down to #41, after selling and streaming 12,493 copies (sales: 10,262). His total sales are at 64,252.
8) D’Angelo— Black Messiah: D’Angelo’s new album experienced a bit of a surge this week, as it climbed back up ten spots to #46. After charting for seven weeks, the r’n’b artist moved 10,655 more units (sales:5,672).
Omarion's single "Post To Be" with Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown is making a slow climb up the Hot 100, this week arriving three spots closer at #89. Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" may have been buzzing for awhile, but it's finally starting to chart (and quickly at that). This week the NJ native made a 14-spot leap to #72. Kanye West's "Only One" with Paul McCartney finds a spot at #68 this week, while Rae Sremmurd's "Throw Sum Mo" is right above Ye at #67. J. Cole's "Apparently" finds a new peak after rising to #65 on the Hot 100, and so does Chris Brown and Tyga's "Ayo" at #57. Futher down, The Weeknd's "Earned It" descends a little to #38, and Nicki's "Truffle Butter" makes a huge (44-spot) climb to #27. Finally, we have O.T. Genasis' "CoCo" getting some love at #20, and yet another Nicki track, "Only", remaining stagnant at #17.