This week we see a new chart-topper arrive, the New York rapper who takes on that southern style, A$AP Rocky. Rocky's debut album, Long.Live.A$AP did surprisingly well. We see albums leak all the time-- usually it's just a week prior to the album's release though. In Rocky's case, we saw it leak a month early. However, Rocky continued doing promo and dropping singles, not worrying about the album leak or bumping his release date up. And it worked out well for him, he still sold a large amount of copies, and landed #1 on the Billboard 200. So, is this a case of an extremely dope album, or an extremely strong fan-base? Let us know what you think in the comments. Apart from Rocky, we see Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis continue to climb back up the charts, with their respective platinum singles helping to bolster their album sales.
1) A$AP Rocky – Long.Live.A$AP: The lead A$AP member, Rocky, saw an impressive debut with his first major label release. Especially if we take into consideration the fact that the LP leaked over a month early—it shows just how strong the A$AP fan base really is. Long.Live.A$AP debuted at #1 on the charts, moving 141, 003 units in opening week. We’ll have to see next week if Rocky is able to keep the top spot.
2) Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox: The singer/songwriter is staying afloat the top of the list, although decreasing in sales slightly from last week, however not significant enough to move him from his #7 spot on the charts. His album sold 38, 221 copies over the past week, which is a decrease of 8% from last week.
3) Rihanna – Unapologetic: Rih Rih’s first #1 album is still moving a steady amount of copies, close to her 20k from last week, this week she sold 19,489 units, landing her Def Jam record at #13.
4) Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city: Following his LP obtaining gold status, one of his singles, "Swimming Pools (Drank)" went platinum this past week. This is probably helping K. Dot’s tribute to his home town slowly creep back up the charts. After sitting at #23 last week, this week the good kid is at #14, right under Rihanna. He saw a 9% increase in sales, with around 18k being sold.
5) T.I. – Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head: Tip’s ninth studio album proves the rapper hasn’t lost it or his fans. He slipped one spot since last week, from #15 to #16, with 17,841 copies of Trouble Man taken off shelves.
6) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist: The rapper and producer duo achieved a platinum song with their lead single “Thrift Shop” the other week, and to add to the honor, the song is also sitting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album it was off, The Heist, is also doing well on the Billboard 200—having moved up the charts from #26 to #18 this week. With their single becoming huge everywhere and receiving a lot of airplay this can only mean more sales for their debut album. We’ll have to see if the sales for it keeps increasing, as it had a 10% spike this week with 17,523 copies moved.
Other notable urban artists that continue to represent on the charts include Alicia Keys with her r’n’b album, Girl On Fire. The girl definitely was on fire, rising up from #32 last week to #23 this week with 15k sold. Below Mrs. Keys, we have Wiz Khalifa, who fell from #39 to #44 with less than 10k sold, with his collaborator The Weeknd right below, with his Trilogy selling 8,782 copies over the past week. Lastly in the top 50 we have Chief Keef’s Finally Rich debut. As we heard about the details of his deal with Interscope this week, it does sound like the rapper is (finally) rich, but we’ll have to see if he stays that way. His album only sold 7,266 over the past week, and his legal problems are mounting. No sign of 2 Chainz in the top 50 of the charts this week, does this mean he’s gone for good?