Obviously the biggest topic of this week's Charts is Drizzy Drake. The rapper utilized the surprise release tactic that we've seen several artists find success with over the last year or two, and it definitely paid off for him as well. His commercial mixtape dropped suddenly late last Thursday night, and with no other option for download apart from iTunes, Drake assured his loyal OVO fanbase would shell out the money for it. Then, in less than a week, the rapper managed to do numbers most mainstream artists dream of. Interestingly, Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint had an extensive roll out and promo, and is only now catching up to the numbers that Drake managed to do first week out with his no-promo-at-all campaign. There have been rumors circulating that Drake put the mixtape out for sale under Cash Money because he wanted to finish up his contract with them, although nothing's been confirmed either way. Whatever the case may be, it definitely put a nice chunk of change in his pockets, satisfied the fans, and created even more anticipation for Views From The 6.
1) Drake— If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late: Drake owns the Billboard charts this week, with IYRTITL debuting at #1, and having the highest-selling week thus far in 2015 (and he's also taking over the Hot 100 chart, more on that below). Drake’s new commercial mixtape moved over 535,000 copies in sales and streams (sales: 495,000). The release will go gold in no time, if it’s not already.
2) Nicki Minaj— The Pinkprint: With her YM counterpart at the top of the charts, Nicki Minaj slides down to #12 this week. The Pinkprint’s combined sales and streams number this past week was 48,839 (sales: 22,009), while her total sales rose to 509,022. Basically, she was able to do what Drake did in one week over the course of a nine-week period.
3) Mark Ronson— Uptown Special: Mark Ronson comes in right below Nicki this week at #13, dropping from #11. His sales figure this week is once again predominantly composed of streams, with 42,269 units moved (sales: 7,389).
4) J. Cole—2014 Forest Hills Drive: It’s still a Cole World out there, with J. Cole’s album rising up a few spots this week to #16. The rapper’s been charting for 10 weeks, and moved another 31,207 units (sales: 22,386). You know it’s doing good when the pure sales figure is not far behind the combined number. His total sales are currently 768,111.
5) Ne-Yo— Non-Fiction: Ne-Yo’s new album falls from #16 to #24 this week. The singer is still moving (and streaming) units with 23,475 copies this week (sales: 15,779).
6) Beyonce— Beyonce: The Queen Bey will not descend the Billboard 200 easily. This week she moves down just one spot to arrive at #34—she’s been charting for 62 weeks. The superstar sold and streamed 16,961 copies this past week (sales: 8,083). Her grand total is 2,218,000.
7) Rae Sremmurd— SremmLife: The debut album from the Ear Drummer boys fall eight spots this week to #39. They’re holding on pretty well, streaming and selling another 16,310 copies—however a large part of that number appears to be streams (sales: 5,679).
8) Kid Ink— Full Speed: Kid Ink’s sophomore album has quickly fallen off, after making a debut the other week at #14 Tha Alumni rapper now finds himself at #45. He moved 13,067 units though (sales: 8,131).
9) John Legend— Love In The Future: John Legend’s album, like Beyonce’s, isn’t too easy to shake off the charts. The singer pops back up on our radar this week, with Love In The Future coming in at #48. He’s actually been charting longer than Bey, with 74 weeks under his belt. The album did 12,566 units this week (sales: 6,561).
On the Hot 100 singles chart, we're finding The Weeknd enter with the "Fifty Shades of Grey" track "Where You Belong" at #95. Drake and Lil Wayne's "Used To" also makes an entrance at #91. That's not the only song from Drake charting on the Hot 100- "10 Bands" enters higher up at #88, "Legend" enters at #86, and "Preach" with PND enters at #85. Yup, that's a feat only Drake could accomplish. Nicki Minaj's "Feeling Myself" is up 1 at #60, while J. Cole's "Apparently" is down 1 at #59. Then we find some more Drake-- Big Sean's "Blessings" featuring Drizzy and Kanye is charting at #53, while Drake's solo cut "Energy" makes a hot shot debut at #49. Kanye West's "Only One" is rising up, at #45 this week. Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" is on a climb up too (and that Kanye co-sign probably didn't hurt) arriving at #41. As we near the top 20, we see Nicki's "Truffle Butter" at #22 and "Only" at #19. Finally, The Weeknd closes out our Hot 100 summary this week with another "Fifty Shades of Grey" track, "Earned It" at #11.